


Intergalatic Mirrors

by emwebb17



Category: Original Work
Genre: Aliens, Near Future, moon base
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-29
Updated: 2013-07-29
Packaged: 2017-12-21 17:10:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 63,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/902786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emwebb17/pseuds/emwebb17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An international conglomerate of astronauts is assigned to test the sustainability of a newly constructed moon base.  They get unexpected visitors.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Those Left Behind

May 3, 2035 – Houston, TX

 

“Marissa Liu?”

The young woman bouncing her knees and wringing her hands didn’t hear her name called.  The NASA liaison tried to get her attention again, this time with an arm wave in addition to calling her name.

Marissa looked up.  “Is it my turn?”

The man smiled and nodded, only showing his impatience by strumming his fingers on the back of the clipboard in his hands.  It was bad enough he’d had to deal with people who couldn’t speak English _and_ children, but couldn’t the native English speaking American get with the program?

Marissa hopped to her feet, her nervous energy making her entire body vibrate.  She followed the man with the clipboard down a rather nondescript hallway to a small, plain room with only a few chairs and a large screen on one wall.  As Marissa centered one of the chairs in front of the screen and took a seat, she realized the man was talking to her again.

“—thousand kilometers.  So even though the signal is traveling at the speed of light, there will be a little bit of a delay.  It’s a little over two seconds, so two to get from here to there and two to get back from there to here.  Probably around five seconds or so total, so don’t be concerned if he seems to be staring at you blankly for a little bit.  Be patient, and wait before you respond to make sure the entire message comes through.”

Marissa nodded.  “Okay.  Omigosh.  I can’t believe he’s really there!”

“Yeah.  Well, you’ve got about fifteen to twenty minutes.”

Marissa watched as the man pulled the door hard behind him.  But even a snotty, underpaid technician couldn’t bring her down.  Six days ago her fiancé had been launched into space as one of the trial members of the international effort to establish a permanent base on the moon.  After ten years of construction and a couple of minor setbacks involving the false gravity generator (which had to be designed and redesigned and built and re-built after efforts to work with the moon’s natural gravity failed), a pilot crew had finally been approved to spend one year in the compound to test its sustainability.  If the experiment was a success, a larger crew with a wider mix of scientific backgrounds would be sent up on two year tours.

Marissa wasn’t sure why Josh had been chosen to be on the primary crew; not that he wasn’t smart, resourceful, and well-qualified.  But he was young, the youngest on the crew at 25, and he was a physicist.  Most of the others on the crew were engineers, ie: people who could fix things if—when—they broke.  Maybe they had selected him because he could act as a nearly flawless double check of their math.  Or maybe it was because he was a genuinely happy person who had a lot of patience and an even temper.  Josh’s friend Hunter had been an integral part of the development of the Moon Base as it was creatively called, but he definitely had some anger management issues.  Marissa supposed that if one was going to be trapped in a 10,000 square foot structure with the same nine people, isolated from friends and family, and with very limited contact with other human beings for a whole year, good psychological and social health had to take precedence over technical skills and credit.

Marissa smiled thinking of her easy-going, fun-loving fiancé.  He was such an online dating profile cliché.  But he was real.  And he was hers.  At least, he would be in 362 days from now.  Three days ago word had been received that the ten man, international crew of the Moon Base had arrived safely and gotten the three major devices up and running: false gravity, air recycler, and water recycler.  Marissa was still unclear as to how they could keep recycling water and not run out of it…unless they were recycling urine.  She just hoped that they really meant water “purifier” and were cleaning the moon dust out of the ice deposits the base had been built over.

Now finally, on day three of their residence and day six of their absence they had some time to check in with their families.  Josh’s parents had visited with him earlier in the day, but Marissa had been unable to join them because her flight out of Boston had been late.  The NASA coordinators had been flexible enough to let Josh have a second session at the end of the day for which Marissa was eternally grateful.  If she was going to spend an awkward weekend with Josh’s parents, at least she would be able to see and talk with Josh.  She hadn’t seen him in person in two months, since her last visit to Houston before liftoff.  She hadn’t been able to make it down to Cape Canaveral the day of the launch, which she regretted greatly.  Before she could prepare herself to see him, the screen flashed once, twice, and then he was there—smiling at her with his beautiful smile.  She’d been expecting the image to be squiggly or snowy, for the color to be off.  But there he was—steady and solid.  Pale brown skin, pale grey eyes, full lips, and wavy black hair.  A perfect blending of his Jewish father and black mother.  He looked like he was on the other side of a glass window from her.  She reached out a hand and felt the warmth of the video screen while small dark rainbows haloed out from her fingertips.  She’d already pulled her hand back by the time she saw that he had reached out a hand to touch his screen in the same place.  This delay wasn’t going to be fun.

“Hi, Josh.”

“Hey, baby.  How’s Houston?”

“Hot.”  She almost continued, but then remembered the delay.  Sure enough, a few seconds later, he laughed.

“See?  That’s why I think a destination wedding would be best.  Houston is too hot and Boston is too…Boston.  I’m thinking…Aruba.”

“Sure.  And I have to plan everything alone and you get to show up in time for an island vacation.”

“I thought it was every bride’s dream to have full reign of her own wedding without the groom bumbling around and causing trouble.”

“Well, yes, but the bride also needs the groom to temper his mother.”

“Aw, she won’t be that bad.  She’s already done two of my sisters’ weddings, and has one more to go.  So, she won’t really care about her son’s wedding.”

“No?  Her precious baby boy?  I couldn’t even plan your graduation party right.  Or pick the right restaurant to celebrate your being selected to join the Moon Base crew.”

“Well, I’m sure your mother will have quite a strong opinion on the matter.”

“Hmm.  I can see it now.  Our wedding will be a traditional Chinese ceremony underneath a chuppah done in Kwanzaa colors.”

Josh laughed, but then tried to look offended.  “Hey.  My mom doesn’t celebrate Kwanzaa.  Anymore.”

Marissa laughed, and they smiled at each other.  Their smiles slowly faded and they stared at each other for several moments.  Then Marissa shook herself.  They didn’t have much time left, which meant no time for gazing longingly at each other.

“So.  How is the base?  Is everything working?”

Josh cleared his throat.  “More or less.  For some reason the lights are a little wonky, but everything else is great.  The air, gravity…it’s like being on earth.  Almost.  Some of the less critical passages and storage rooms have fail points where the system has been pieced together.  It’s kind of strange to be walking around normally, and then suddenly get a bounce of weightlessness only to touch back down in solid gravity again.”

“That sounds a little scary.”

“Oh, it’s not scary.  It’s great.  I bet the novelty of earth-like conditions on the moon will wear off eventually, but right now it’s still totally amazing to feel like we’re at home, but we’re on the frickin’ moon!   Or, it could be that the ratio of oxygen in the air mixture is a little skewed and we’re a little bit high.”

Marisa laughed and tried to discreetly wipe away a tear.

“Don’t be sad, Marissa.  I’ll be home in less than a year.  And I’ll have lived out my boyhood dream of going to outer space.  You’ll be able to finish your doctorate in peace.  And then we’ll have nothing to focus on but each other for the next few years.  Until we decide to have a rugrat or two.”

“Yeah.”  Marissa sniffed.  “It’s not the time, baby.”

“Then what is it?”

Marissa sighed.  She shouldn’t say what her fears were.  She’d kept them to herself up until now, what good would it be to voice them once he was already there?

“There’s just so much that can go wrong, baby.  You’re trapped up there with no way of getting help to you fast.  I can’t lose you.”

“Oh, Risa…why didn’t you tell me you were scared about that?  A lot of people spent a lot time making this thing work.  It was ready to go three years ago, but they didn’t want to rush into anything.  So it was tested and retested and stressed and maxed out…and it still held together.  We’ll be fine.”

“But why couldn’t you go _after_ other people had tested it for real?  Make sure it’s safe.”

“Because then, I wouldn’t have left for a year and a half and would be gone for two years.  We would have had to postpone the wedding for like, three years.  This way is better for us.”

“But, what if you get sick?”

“Not possible.  We were all deloused and practically radiation showered clean.  And there aren’t any foreign microbes on the moon.  I’m safer from disease up here than you are down there.”

“Well, what if something falls on your head?  It’s not like you can call an ambulance.”

Josh laughed.  Well, good thing he was taking this mission so seriously.

“We’ve got Dr. Martin with us.  The one thing the European Space Agency managed to contribute: a medical doctor.  And she’s Canadian…not even European.  Ha.  I wonder why they still even put up the pretense of having a space program.”

“Does she know what’s she’s doing?”

“I think so.  I haven’t asked her to play doctor yet though.”

Josh laughed and Marissa frowned, which made him laugh harder.

“She’s great, Risa.  She’s about 30, so she’s had a few years experience practicing.  She’s very sweet and seems excited to be in space, which is a good thing.  We were worried the medical doctor might not be that interested in space travel, but she went through astronaut training while doing her residency…for fun.  Who has the time for that?”

“Sweet and 30, huh?  What’s she look like?”

“Ah, you know, Canadian.”

“Blonde bombshell?” Marissa asked dryly.

“No.  Blonde, yes.  But small, petite.  She looks like a little girl really.  Not a woman…or anything.”

“You know, I’m sure I can Google her.”

Josh sighed.  “Yes, she’s cute.  But, she’s like…old.”

“Oh, yes, 30 is ancient.”

“Look, Sara is just a co-worker.  You’ve never been jealous of my other co-workers before.”

“Well, your co-workers are mostly men—and you weren’t trapped on the moon with the prospect of no sex for a year.”

Josh laughed.  “I’m a science geek, baby.  I’ve gone many years without sex.  No big deal.  So long as you’re not incensed by the idea of being my go-to fantasy during my self-relaxation sessions.”

Marissa giggled.  “Ew.  Gross.  So, how are the others?”

“Well, you’ve met Tim Roth before, right?  He’s our acting commander.  So, he’s very good at keeping everything shipshape and everyone on a schedule.  Which could get old after a while.  But you know how people born before the new millennium can be: they like things the way they used to be.  But he’s in damn good shape for a 47 year old.  Puts all us youngsters to shame.  And still has a full head of hair.”

“Yeah, that sexy salt and pepper distinguished look.  I remember him now.”

“Hush, woman.  Let’s see, there’s Jim Kellerman.  He’s our chief engineer.  Mostly computer stuff though; the actual mechanics and building and assembling is done by our international friends.”

“Have I met Jim before?”

“Ah, I can’t remember.  Maybe.”

“Is he the redhead?”

“Oh, no.  That was Jim Thomas.  Jim Kellerman is black, about 6 foot Empire State Building and could easily be mistaken for a tank.  But real nice.  Wicked sense of humor.”

“You got room for him up there?”

“Yeah.  ‘Cause Sanjay and Hannah are about the size of one person combined.”

“Another woman?”

“Yeah, but she’s not cute at all.  All skinny limbs and attitude.  And she’s taller than me.  I hate that.”

“I thought you said she was small.”

“Well, I meant skinny.  She and Sanjay weigh about two hundred and thirty pounds combined.  Sanjay’s a little short, but he’s pretty ripped.”  Josh laughed.  “He’s worried that if he spends a year out of the sunlight he’s going to turn as a pale as me.  Oh, and he does a killer impression of Apu.”

“Of who?”

“You know, the convenience store owner from _The Simpsons_?”

“Wha—Oh, that cartoon where all the people are yellow.”  Marissa sighed.  Everybody had their faults and Josh’s was his love for bad, adult oriented cartoons.  Old adult cartoons.  Actually, anything old and related to pop culture.  It was almost like _he_ was the one born before the new millennium.

“Don’t sigh!  You said you liked _The Simpsons_.”

“I said I didn’t _mind_ _The Simpsons_.  As much.  And I was trying to get into your pants at the time.”

“Ah!  You lied to me about liking _The Simpsons_?  We might just have to call the whole thing off.”

“Yeah, yeah.  So, is he from India?  I thought they decided not to send one up on the trial run.”

“Well, he’s ethnically Indian, but he’s American.  He’s from upstate New York.”

“How many Americans are there?”

“Five, including me.  The four I already told you about.  Then, there’s Dr. Martin—a representative of the ESA.  And then Russia sent two guys up here…Alexei and Evgeny.  It’s like a Greek play.  Evgeny is the ugliest guy you’ve ever seen in your life, but so nice.  A truly _good_ human being.  And Alexei has a pretty face, but a pretty nasty personality.  His fuse is non-existent.  After three months on the ground with him we all knew we wouldn’t survive a year up here with him.  They’re going to have to send Poirot up here one day to try to work out which one of us did it.  It’ll be great: Poirot and the Murder on the Moon.”

Marissa laughed.  “I hope it won’t come to that.  But if he’s so disagreeable, why does he get to go up?  It seems if he can, then Hunter should.”

“Ha.  Yeah.  Well, we agreed to give Russia two slots, but one of the requirements is that everyone has to be able to speak flawless, nearly unaccented English.  Alexei was the only other one who fit the bill.”

“Why is English the official language?”

“Well, we’re actually footing the bill for most of this project, so we get to make most of the rules.”

“Ah.  Is that everyone?”

“No, there’s Xiaodan from China.  He’s acting all serious and reserved, but he’s really young too.  I have a feeling we’ll be able to get him to loosen up after a while.  And then Naoki is from Japan.  He’s about Tim’s age, but seems like he came up here more for the adventure of it than the science.”

“Like you, huh?”

“No way.  Physics is my mistress and I serve only her.”

“Hn.  Well, for the next year anyway.  Then she’ll have to be the old college friend you only see every now and then while your wife chaperones.”

Josh laughed.  “Sounds good.”  He sighed and his smile disappeared.  “I’m sorry, Risa.”

“Sorry?  For what?”

“For doing this.  For leaving you for a year.  It was really selfish of me.”

“No.  No, not at all.  You were helping out on this project before we even started dating.  You shouldn’t change your whole life for me.”

“But my whole life already changed for you.  In a good way.  You’ve changed my world.  Before…I was excited about leaving Earth and seeing what the universe had to offer.  And then…you made Earth the only place I wanted to be.”

Marissa covered part of her face, blushing furiously.  “Josh…”  She couldn’t find the words to respond.

The door opened and she turned to look at the opening.  The technician with the clipboard was back.

“I’m sorry, but your time is up.”

Marissa nodded and looked back at Josh.  She put her hand to the screen again and this time waited for him to mirror the movement.  They smiled at each other.

“I love you, Josh.”

“I love you, too.  Have fun with my parents this weekend.”

“Heh.  Yeah.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”


	2. First Third Encounter

Josh left his hand against the screen even after it had gone blank.  It would probably be several weeks if not months before he got to speak with his family again.  You would think that e-mail would be one of the features of a super advanced moon base…but the government was too worried about communications being intercepted by non-participating governments.   And so what if they were?  It’s not like they were working on classified, national security issues up here.

“Did you mean all that bullshit you said just now?”

Josh turned to see Sanjay leaning against the door to the communications room.  He smiled at him.

“Yeah, I did.”

Sanjay frowned.  “That’s gross.”

“You’ll understand when you fall in love.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of.”

“Is there a reason you’re eavesdropping?”

“Yeah, Tim has called another ‘organizational’ meeting.”

Josh made a face.  “Good God, I can already see how this year is going to go.”

“Tell me about it.  Poirot and the Murder on the Moon.  It’ll be one of those ones with multiple homicides.”

“You were listening that long?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to interrupt.”

“You could have left and come back.”

“Naw.  Eavesdropping was more interesting.  I thought there was a chance it might get dirty there for a second, but then you started talking about our fearless commander.  Way unsexy.”

“Yeah, not according to my mom.  My sisters.  And apparently my fiancée.”

“Yeah, my mom thinks he’s hot too.  For a white guy.”  Sanjay’s face became thoughtful.  “I think my little brother does too.”

Josh laughed as he stood up.  “Is that disclosed information yet?”

“Not yet.  He thinks my parents would actually care.  I mean after three sisters and two brothers brought home white, black, Asian, and Hispanic SOs, I think they would be thrilled if my brother brought home a man as long as he was Indian.”

Josh laughed again and shrugged into his uniform jacket as they left the communications room.

“Geez,” Josh grumbled good-naturedly.  “How long do you think it will take to get Tim to allow us to dress casual while we’re up here?”

“Well, I don’t plan on washing mine, so after a few days I should be ripe enough that he’ll order me out of them.”

Josh laughed and slapped Sanjay’s back.  Sanjay smiled sideways at him.

“You’ve got a loud laugh man.”

“I’ve been told that before.”

“It’s not bad though.  It kind of makes you want to laugh too.”

“Yeah, I can tell by the way you’re succumbing to your giggles.”

“I’m not a laugher.  The fact that I _want_ to laugh…that’s proof right there.”

“Unh-huh.”

Josh shook his head in amusement.  There was dry humor…and then there was Sanjay.  He could make British people seem slapstick happy.

They made their way around the slightly curving sides of the outer walls of the base.  The floor, walls, and ceiling were stark white, like the designer had seen one too many sci-fi movies about what moon bases would look like in the future.  Fortunately this motif only occupied what were considered to be the exterior structures and the science laboratories.  The residential and recreational sections had more of a concrete slab prison feel.  All in all, it was a really welcoming and comforting place in which to spend a year of one’s life.  At least their dark navy blue uniforms helped spruce the place up and give it some color.  It was much better than when they wore their white uniforms.

Tim had them all meet in the room that was actually designated as “the conference room.”  Why this room was separate from the link up to the command center on Earth was kind of a mystery.  Unless one remembered that this base was technically run by the federal government.  If they ever had to all communicate with Earth at once they would be forced to squish up against the walls so they could all fit in the tiny room while they could probably host a luau in the conference room.

Everyone was already seated and tapping their pens against the table when Josh and Sanjay arrived.  They took their seats on the side of the table that had somehow become the “American” side.  Josh supposed that since five people had to sit on one side and five on the other it couldn’t be helped that the Americans naturally all sat together.  It just made the crew seem a little divided even though the other five were of different nationalities.  Josh wasn’t sure if Jim made it better or worse by moving to sit at the head of the table.  The commander looked at his crew with a grave expression.

“We’ll pick up where we left off this morning.  Sanjay, add dusting to your July duties.”

 

“God,” Hannah murmured once Tim was out of earshot.  “I feel like we’re on some sort of reality show.  Like, The Real World: Moon Base.  And it’s just a matter of time before we all start calling each other bitches and getting drunk and having ill-advised sexual trysts in the hot tub.”

“Oh!  I wish we had a hot tub!” Sara exclaimed softly.

“You know, that would have been a smart idea,” Sanjay said.  “They could have sold it to a network and got some funding for the project.  I mean, we’re lucky they didn’t slash our budget anymore than they did.”

“Yes, it is a wonder this place got built,” Xiaodan said softly.

“Well, it’s mostly your country’s money anyway, right?” Alexei laughed.  “I don’t think the US government has paid for anything since World War II.”

“Ah, I think our debt started way before then,” Hannah mused.

The group laughed and Josh patted Sanjay on the shoulder as he peeled off from them.

“Can you make me a grilled cheese sandwich?  I’ll join you guys in a few minutes.”

“Do I look like that sexy fiancée of yours?  Make your own food.”

“Oh, yes.  Because tearing open the flash frozen packet and nuking it in the microwave is so much work.”

“It is.”

“I’ll make it for you,” Evgeny said with a smile.

“Thank you.”

Josh gave Evgeny a smile, Sanjay a scowl, and continued around the exterior hallway as the rest turned left to enter the main space of the base.  He heard Sanjay say something to Evgeny about how no amount of microwaving frozen meals would get Josh to switch teams for him.  There was loud protesting following the comment.  Though whether Evgeny was protesting to being gay or to just not being interested in him, Josh couldn’t determine.  He walked several more yards until he came to the observation deck.  Obviously it was only a deck in name as it was still completely inside the moon base due to the vacuum of space outside, but it was the most incredible and simply best room in the whole compound.

A large, clear dome made of glass and radiation blocking plastics and other materials he didn’t remember because he hadn’t been listening when they explained it to the group, covered a circular room 1000 square feet in area.  This room alone was about 1/10 of the area of the entire moon base.  It was Josh’s favorite place.  The first time he’d been in it he’d been awestruck because he could look out into the vastness of the universe—and if he stood in just the right place see absolutely nothing but stars and space.  Then he’d turned and seen what really made the deck the best room in the base.  He could see the Earth, beautiful, luminous—deceptively close.  And the best part was that it would always be there.  Due to the moon being in synchronous rotation with the Earth, they would never turn away from it.  There had been a debate early on about which side of the moon the base should be built on.  On the dark side, it would make it much easier to gather images from deep space…but the argument for the psychological comfort of being able to always see home won out.

Josh looked at the Earth now.  It was a “full” Earth having risen completely above the horizon about an hour ago.  The clouds were thick today; he couldn’t make out what continent or ocean might be underneath them.  As wondrous as Saturn and her rings, Jupiter’s giant raging storm, and monochromatic Mars were, there was no planet, no sight at all, that was more beautiful than the brilliant blue of home.

Since Josh was focused intensely on his home he missed the initial distortion in space just to his left.  But he saw the flash of light before he felt the shockwave, and he was on the floor, reeling from the jolt before he heard the low, almost sub-sonic boom that followed.  He shook his head and put a hand out to the bench that for some reason had been bolted to the floor.  At least if there was another earthquake, a bolted bench would make some sort of sense.  Then Josh remembered that there were no continental plates on the moon…earthquakes weren’t possible.  The only explanations could be that something on the base had exploded or the moon had been hit by an asteroid or meteor.  Then Josh saw the reason for the quake.

He sat stunned on the floor.  He didn’t know if his heart was still beating or his lungs drawing in breath.  The only thing working was his brain as it tried to piece together what it was seeing: a small silver object in front of what appeared to be a rip in space.  There was darkness pricked by pinpoints of light: space the way should it be.  And then there was a jagged circle of nothing.  Darkness.  Pitch black.  The jagged edges wavered, collapsed.  Josh gasped as he was flung forward into the bottom of the dome.  Had he had enough sense to think of it, he would have been grateful once again that the benches were bolted down.  The silver object was still there, but a little farther away now.  Regardless, there was no mistaking that it was manmade.  _Man_ made?  Made by something sentient anyway.

But Josh didn’t care about that.  That thought barely even flickered across his mind.  He was a physicist first and foremost and there was no mistaking he had just witnessed the creation and destruction of a wormhole.  Seeing it happen firsthand raised more questions than it answered.  The terrible black emptiness that it had been didn’t make any sense.  Wormholes required a large amount of energy.  An astronomical amount—not to ruin it with a pun.  They had to come from somewhere and end somewhere…they couldn’t come out of nothing.  Clearly that ship hadn’t just been spontaneously created by the random happenstance of a wormhole formation.  That ship—most likely intentionally—had been on the other side and traveled through it.  It couldn’t have come from that absolute nothingness.  And where had the mass come from?  The light and sound he could understand being generated with the amount of energy required to open and close it.  But what had crashed into the moon and sent him flying to the floor?  What on Earth (or clearly, _not_ on Earth) had pushed him back forward again?  Had it come from the other side?  Had the mass or gas particles or whatever it had been come from where the ship had come from?  But if that ship had been in space when the wormhole opened, there was nothing on its side to draw into the hole.  Unless it had been formed on a planet.  But the idea of forming a wormhole on a planet was a joke.  And an expediter for sci-fi movies.

How had it happened?  What generated it?  What made it come out _here_?  Why had it lasted nine point three seconds?  Where did the energy come from?  Where did it go?  Was he now dosed with a lethal amount of radiation?  All excellent questions.

He was still pondering these questions when the rest of the crew tumbled into the observation room, screaming, yelling, panicking.  A couple of them asked if he was okay while they all plastered their noses to the dome and stared outside.  They went silent as they caught sight of the silver object.

“I told you I wasn’t seeing things,” Sara murmured.

Silence again.

“What the hell do we do now?” Jim asked.

“Phone home?” Josh suggested, not meaning to make a joke.

Everyone was silent again.  Then Evgeny spoke.

“You don’t…you don’t really think those are…aliens…do you?”

More silence.  Then Josh sensed eyes on him.  Not foreign, alien eyes from the ship, but nine pairs staring intently at him.  He backed up a couple of steps so he could see everyone and still look out the window.

“Why did you say aliens?” Alexei asked him.

“I didn’t,” Josh replied.  “I just meant maybe we should contact Earth and inform them about…the event.”

“Did you see it happen?” Tim asked

“Do you think they’re aliens?” Evgeny repeated.

“Where did that thing come from?” Naoki asked.  “Did it have anything to do with the explosion?”

“Um…”  Josh stalled.

“Are they aliens?” Hannah screeched.

“I don’t know,” Josh said, trying to think of anything that might allay their fears of alien invasion.  “I suppose some country could have an experimental ship out here.”

The Russians looked at Xiaodan.

“Is that yours?” Alexei demanded.

Xiaodan’s eyes widened.  “W-what?”

“If anything it would be yours,” Sanjay muttered.

Well, that deflection might have made matters worse.  Josh decided to distract them before the anxiousness everyone was feeling turned into animosity as suspicions rose.  “They could be time travelers.”

Everyone was focused on him again.  He didn’t really like the intense attention, but at least there was no longer an imminent threat of international battle.

“But, that seems unlikely.  While time travel is theoretically possible, it’s really only thought to be possible to travel to the future…and since no one from the past to the best of our knowledge has achieved that yet…it wouldn’t make sense that the future that gets traveled to would be now.”

“What?” Sara asked.

“I mean, there was a wormhole…but no.  Definitely not time travelers.  Well, probably not.”

“Wai-wai-wait,” Jim said, his deep voice rumbling through the open space of the room.  “Did you say wormhole?”

“Yeah.  So, that would actually make time travel and a current country’s experiment seem unlikely since we just don’t have the physics and math and power worked out yet.  But—”

“Stop,” Tim commanded.  “Why would you assume there was a wormhole?”

Josh blinked at the group.  “I saw it.  Didn’t you?  Isn’t that why you all came here?”

Everyone started talking at once, the din made worse by the echoing of the room.  Arms were waved, fingers were pointed.  Hannah looked like she might crack at any moment and continually glanced outside at the silver object.

“QUIET!”

Everyone went quiet and they waited for Jim’s thunderous voice to stop reverberating through the room.

“I was in the interior,” Jim said.

“We were all in the kitchen,” Sanjay said.  Also a part of the interior and therefore windowless.

“I felt the explosion in my room,” Naoki said.  “It knocked me to the floor.  I got up and ran for the equipment room…worried something had malfunctioned and exploded.”

“We all headed there,” Sanjay said.

“I started to run back to the lab,” Sara said, “to get supplies in case anyone was hurt.  On the way, I saw out the exterior windows.  There was this…shiny, silver thing.  I went to the engineering room.  I figured that’s where everyone would be.  Once I was there and everyone said that nothing was broken…I asked if they thought the silver thing had anything to do with it.  Nobody else had seen it.  Then we noticed you weren’t there…and we were supposed to split up.  Some were supposed to look for you while others came here to look at the silver thing I saw.  I guess we all got excited and came here.  Sorry we didn’t look for you,” Sara finished lamely.

Josh shrugged.  “No harm, no foul.”

“You were here?” Tim asked.

“Yes.”

“So, you saw what caused the explosion?”

“Sort of.  It wasn’t an explosion, but a shockwave.”  Josh’s brow creased in thought.  “But where did the mass come from?” he murmured.  He started when Sanjay snapped his fingers in front of his face.

“Come back to us,” he said.  “Don’t go all physics-boy on us.  Just tell us what you saw.  With your puny human eyes…not your genius brain.”

“I was looking at Earth.  It happened to my left…almost out of my peripheral vision.  There was light…and then I was knocked on the floor.  And the sound followed.  And when I looked…”

Josh looked at the spot where the emptiness had been.  He couldn’t quite repress the shudder he felt at the memory.

“There was nothing.  A hole that came from nowhere, had nothing in it.  But, it was a hole in space…like temporal space.  The silver thing was in front of it.  Then the shockwave reversed.  Did you feel that?  You didn’t mention it…?”

The group looked at each other.

“What do you mean?” Naoki asked.

“You said you were knocked down once, were you knocked down a second time?”

He shook his head.

“I didn’t feel a second explosion,” Jim said.

The group murmured agreement.

“It must have been lesser in power.  It went backwards.  Back to the hole.  Then it collapsed and closed.  The silver ship was still there, but a little bit farther away.  I guess it got pulled back too.”

Hannah whimpered.  “You said ship.  It really is a ship, isn’t it?  Not with time travelers or people with experimental equipment.  It’s a ship full of things that came through a wormhole.”

There was some hushed, excited whispering before Tim got them all to shut-up.

“Look, we don’t know that for sure.  I think Josh is right.  We need to contact Earth.  Immediately.  Josh, come with me so you can explain what you saw.”

“Oh my God they’re going to probe us,” Hannah sobbed.

“Why do people always assume aliens want to kill all the humans?” Evgeny asked.

“Have you ever _seen_ a Sci-Fi movie?” Sanjay asked.

“Yeah.  Movies made by human ego.”

“Or people who believe that Stephen Hawking is right and if alien life does come here then they would be the Columbus, the Cortez, the British…and humans would be the unwitting and technologically inferior natives who get cheated, lied to, and eradicated.”  Josh blinked at the suddenly dour group.  “Well, that’s just _his_ theory.”

“Josh, come with me,” Tim said again.

“Maybe we should wait just a little bit and see what the ship does.  Maybe it will travel again.  I’d like to see the formation of the wormhole this time.  And it may not even head for Earth if it stays.”

Tim chewed his lip for a second.  “How long we talking?”

Josh shrugged.  “One, two hours.”

“How about 30 minutes.”

“Well, it’s pretty far out.  It may take a while to even discern a direction.”

“How about 30 minutes.”

“30 is good.”

“What the hell are the rest of us supposed to do?” Hannah rasped.

“Well, I think Sara needs to take you to the med lab and sedate you,” Sanjay said.

“That might not be a bad idea,” Hannah agreed.

“No,” Tim said.  “I don’t want anyone on this crew out of it in case we…well, it would be best if everyone has a clear head when we try to sort this thing out.”

“In case what?  In case _what_?!  You’re thinking it too!  They’re going to attack!”

“Unlikely,” Josh said not necessarily believing it, but relying on his knowledge of the theory of large numbers combined with the fact that most exploratory expeditions made by humans didn’t _initially_ begin as attacks.

“See?” Sara said.  “Josh isn’t worried.  So we don’t need to be either.”

“And since when is Josh our resident barometer of when to be freaked out?” Alexei asked.  “Last time I checked, this is the first time he’s ever experienced something like this.  Unless he _is_ one of them and is trying to placate us and delay contacting Earth.”  Alexei eyed him.  “It might also explain a few personality quirks.”

Josh could see Hannah scooting away from him.  He gave Alexei an annoyed look and the Russian smiled beautifully back at him.  He enjoyed exploiting people’s weaknesses and Sara and Hannah were his primary targets.

“I think we should contact Earth now,” Xiaodan said, looking out at what was now clearly a ship.

It was egg-shaped, rounded and being larger at one end than the other, but it had a flat bottom.  It had dark, shiny, round spots that were probably windows.  No wings though, and no discernable location for engines.  It was more clearly a ship now because it was much closer than it had been, and despite having the vastness of space behind it and no other “landmarks” it was pretty apparent that it was moving with some speed.  Directly toward Earth.

“How did it get over here?” Hannah squealed.

“Did another wormhole open?” Tim asked.

“I didn’t feel anything,” said Naoki.

“Maybe they were mini wormholes because they were traveling a shorter distance,” Jim suggested.

Everyone looked at Josh.  He pulled his eyes away from the ship.

“They probably have ion powered engines or something.  And I think they started out closer to us than they appeared.  Distances are hard to judge in space.”

“Why would it head directly for Earth?” Hannah demanded, grabbing Josh’s arm.  Clearly she was over her fear that he might be “one of them.”  “Did it know to come out here?  There are like nine other planets in this system they could look at!  How do they know?”

Josh carefully unhooked Hannah’s claws from his arm.  “First off, you’re an astronaut.  Please tell me that you know there are only _seven_ other planets in this solar system.”

“Josh!”

“Secondly, how would I know if they’ve been here before or if they knew where to come out?  And thirdly, it doesn’t take more than a quick glance at this system to know that if you’re looking for life you want to go to the blue planet…you know, the one with all the water.”

“Or to that watery planet’s satellite with a purposely built structure on it,” said Sanjay.

“Exactly,” said Josh.  “If I saw there was a small settlement just off the planet I would go there first thinking that it would be better to meet a small number first and not ‘invade’ someone’s home territory.  Or I might even assume something was wrong with the planet and it would be safer on the satellite.”

“Uh, no, dude.  I wasn’t putting myself in alien travelers’ shoes…I was watching the ship.”

Everyone’s noses were against the blended glass and plastic structure again.  The ship, still about the same distance away, was now pointed partially toward them.

“They aren’t coming right at us.  Maybe—” Evgeny cut off as the ship turned some more, the front of the egg clearly pointing toward the moon base now.

Everyone watched in silence for several minutes.  The ship did not suddenly speed up, but continued on in steady progress.

Josh was three people away, but he still heard Tim swallow thickly.

“How long until it gets here?”

Josh assumed that question was directed at him so he said, “I can’t say for sure of course.  It could use whatever technique it used earlier to increase its speed.  Plus without any landmarks near it, I’m actually not sure how far away it is.  But, I would guess it should be here in about an hour.  No more than two.”

“Two hours left to live,” Hannah breathed.

“Shut-up,” Xiaodan snapped.

Everyone was surprised to hear this sharp command come from the usually calm and taciturn Chinese.  He must be feeling more scared than his stoic exterior belied.

“All right,” Tim said in his most decisive voice.  “Josh and I are going to contact Earth.  We’ll explain the situation to them the best we can and…let you know what they say.”

“Are you going to contact our governments too?” Alexei asked.  “Or once again is America going to take credit for everything in the Universe?”

“Quite frankly I think the visitors will get credit for this one,” Josh said.

Alexei frowned at him.

“I don’t know, Zharov.  We have no way of contacting Russia or China or Japan from here.  And we certainly can’t force Command to do anything.  So, us arguing about it up here won’t help anyone.”

Alexei crossed his arms, but didn’t argue further.  Tim looked at Josh and gave a short jerk of his head toward the exit.  Josh followed the man as he walked stiffly from the room.  Behind him he heard Sara mutter, “We can’t contact Canada either.”

 

Josh played with his thumbnail as he waited for Command’s response.  Tim sat in the chair beside him, completely immobile and in the same position he’d been in for the last twenty minutes.  The thirty men on the screen—a number that had quintupled from the original five—stared blankly at them.

“I’m sorry,” said one of the aerospace engineers.  “Can you say that again?”

Josh sighed.  “I’ve already told you twice.”

“But, we’re not picking up anything from the satellites and we’ve pointed almost every camera and telescope we have out there and we’re not seeing anything.”

Josh shrugged.  “What can I tell you?  Set the telescopes on a slow scan and let it find it rather than using human eyes.  It’s not that big.  Bigger than one of our shuttles, but it is at least as far away as the moon.  So…”

“Maybe you all see an asteroid or something,” someone chimed in.

“No,” Josh said unequivocally.

“Maybe you’re not seeing anything,” he heard someone murmur.

“Are you suggesting the ten of us are suffering from space dementia after six days in the void?”

“No,” said the ground control commander.  “No.”  He crossed his arms and looked quizzically at the two astronauts.  “Are you serious?”

“Utterly,” Josh said as Tim ground out, “Yes.”

The commander let out a small laugh.  Then he laughed louder.  Then he slapped his thigh.  “Hot damn, boys!  We are going to be contacted by real life fuckin’ aliens!”

The command burst into shouts and pandemonium and a few raucous cheers.

“Gentlemen, gentlemen!  Heeeeeeeeeeey!” Josh screamed at the top of his lungs, knowing it wouldn’t have nearly the same effect after traveling a few thousand miles.

Ground control quieted down.

“I hate to break it to you guys, but _we’re_ about to be contacted by real life aliens.  What should we do?”

The guys on the other side, who were still safe and sound on Earth, were silent.  No definitive orders.  No guidelines from the mission plan.  No helpful suggestions.

“Are you going to inform the other governments?” Tim asked.

The room buzzed.  Then the commander spoke, “I guess we should.  Their men are up there too.  But I’m worried about releasing this to the public.  It might cause mass hysteria.  Plus, we don’t know their intentions.  Or if we’re even right about this.  Hell, the thing could be completely automated.  A probe or something.”

“I’ve considered that,” Josh said.

“And?”

“And it is entirely possible.  Our base is emitting radio waves among other things.  Quite possibly it was programmed to approach the closest artificial signal.”

“Do you think there’s a chance there are actual…people…on board?”

“Yes.”

“What are the odds?”

“What?”

“Automated versus piloted.  What do you think are the odds?”

“Impossible to calculate.  I would assume that if it is their first experiment using wormholes, they wouldn’t want to risk any actual lives.  But, we can’t possibly know if this is the first time they’ve attempted it or the hundredth.  Though, if pressed, I think I would say that the odds are slightly tipped in favor of automation.”

“Why?”

“Well, even under the best of circumstances, wormholes are extremely unstable.  I think it would always be risky to send living astronauts through them.”  More useless silence.  “Is Hunter there?”

“He—and everyone else—have been called in.”

“Is my fiancée still there?”

“Even if she were, we can’t let her know right now.”

Josh nodded.  “All right.  Well.  I guess the question is, if there is someone on that ship, and they come here and knock on the door, do we let them in?”

Ground control buzzed again.  An argument broke out in one corner.  The commander hushed them.

“Listen, son.  We can’t make that call.  We’re going to authorize you letting them in if you want.  But the ten of you are going to have to sit down together, discuss it, and decide for yourselves.”

Josh nodded and glanced at Tim.  The older man took a deep breath and looked back at him.

“I guess we better go see where…it…is and talk with the others.”

Josh nodded again.  “Okay.”

“We’ll discuss things with the President here,” the ground control commander said.  “And get word to our collaborators’ countries.  Keep us posted, I guess.”

“Yes, sir,” Tim said.  He stood up quickly and disconnected the call.  He put his hands on his hips.  “Shit.  My wife told me I was too old for this mission.  I should just retire and make birdhouses with her.”

Josh smiled.  “You are definitely not too old.  Don’t even try to pull that one.  And I think…it’ll be okay.”

Tim gave him a look.  “Why?”

“Because.  This isn’t _Star Wars_.  I don’t have a bad feeling about this.”

Tim chuckled.  “God, I hope your instincts are right.”

Josh laughed nervously.  “Me too.”

 

Josh looked around the room.  They were all back in the observation deck.  Tim had called a meeting in the conference room, but everyone felt more comfortable having a discussion about the “visitors” if they could keep an eye on them.  The discussion hadn’t lasted very long.  They determined pretty quickly that if there were actual sentient beings in the ship, then they certainly had enough technology to get inside the base if they wanted to start trouble.  And if they didn’t, well, it wouldn’t be very nice to leave them out there.  Hannah had advocated turning the lights off and pretending they weren’t home.  Then Josh pointed out they would then probably head for Earth.  Everyone agreed that maybe the intentions and origins of the visitors should be determined before freaking out everyone on Earth.  So, now they had nothing else to discuss.  They just waited and watched the ship steadily draw closer.

The closer it got the more legs started to bounce, nails got bitten, and feet paced the room.  Josh spent his nervous energy by calculating the size of the ship, which became easier once it was close enough to compare it against one of the walls of the base.  He was fairly certain it was nearly 50 feet long, 20 feet high, and 30 feet around the middle.  In order to calculate the volume he used the simple formula for the volume of a prolate ellipsoid, which wasn’t entirely accurate due to the flat bottom, but his brain was a little too wired for mental calculus.  So, if the formula was (4/3)πabc then that would make it 15,708 cubic feet…approximately.  Minus the footage lost in the flat bottom.  Either way, it was pretty substantial in size, about 1/2 the size of the old International Space Station.  And considering how much of that space was in the height, it was possible that it was a two-storied ship.  That was a whole lot to be maneuvering around space.  It wasn’t yet feasible on Earth to launch something that large; if it was a manmade craft, it would have had to have been built in space.

At long last, for better or worse, the sizable craft hovered nearly on top of where the science labs were housed.  It slowed considerably, and began to move down the length of the base.  Eventually no amount of squashed noses and craned necks could keep the ship in site.

“Where are they going?” Hannah whispered.

“Around the base, apparently,” Alexei said.  “They’re evaluating it.  That’s not automation.”

“Well, it could be,” Evgeny countered.  “It could have a directive to find something that appears non-natural and then photograph it from all angles.  We do the same thing with our probes.”

“Do you think they would be looking for anything in particular?” Tim asked.

Everyone looked at Josh.  Why did they think that he had some sixth sense insight into aliens?

He shrugged.  “I guess, if it were me, I’d be looking for a door.”

The group exchanged glances.  And then they all bolted from the room.  There was only one obvious place on the moon base that could possibly be interpreted as a way in because it was, in fact, the only way in or out.  Emergency exits had not been a part of the architectural design.  After all, if you had to go out the back door on a moon base, you were dead anyway.

The door they were rushing for was the docking bay.  There were three large, pressurized gates designed for space shuttles.  Right now there was only the shuttle the crew had come up in taking up one place.  The idea was that eventually multiple ships could come and go in order to bring new supplies and shuttle the future crew members back and forth between Earth and the moon.  An ambitious and somewhat costly idea, but it really was the only feasible way to keep the moon base permanently staffed…for now.  It would still be quite some time before families would be able to move in.  Next to the three large docks was a small door designed for allowing the crew to take moon walks.  It was attached to a small 20x20 foot room that allowed them to put on their spacesuits, and then could be depressurized so that they could enter the vacuum of space without putting the only airlock on a door that led directly into the base.  Of course, once the room was depressurized, there wasn’t much difference between the inside and outside of the room, but it was one of those absurdly psychologically comforting things.

The group crashed against the wall of the docking bay, each jostling for a position to look through one of the four portholes that were placed in between each dock and the “dressing room” as they called it.  Josh had been one of the first to careen around the corner into the bay, so he chose the window closest to the dressing room.  He oofed softy as Sara and Alexei crashed into him.  They pressed tightly against him so that they could get their faces close to the glass.  Sara was too short to see over his shoulder, so she ducked under his arm.  Alexei was panting right on his ear and despite being enthralled and terrified by the idea of being on the verge of seeing extraterrestrials, Josh couldn’t help but shiver at the sensation.  Marissa loved playing with his ears and had conditioned him to enjoy it as well.  Josh gave a little shake of his head and leaned a little toward Sara, giving room for Alexei to press forward so that his breath was now fogging up the double paned glass polymer.

The ship hovered ten yards above the surface of the moon and about twenty-five yards from the base.  It was closer to the ship doors than the dressing room.  Josh searched for any disturbance of the moon dust below the ship, but there was none.  No thrust of any kind.  How was it staying aloft?  It was close enough that the moon’s gravity should have had some effect on it.  They all waited.  For what felt like hours but was really only minutes.

“What are they waiting for?” Hannah cried softly.

Now Josh felt sorry for her.  There was real terror in her voice.  She didn’t want to be here, didn’t want to see this.  He couldn’t blame her.  There was some small part of himself that wasn’t quite sure he wanted to be here.  But the larger part, the scientist, the adventurer, the little boy…they were all dying to see this.

“What _are_ they waiting for?” Tim echoed Hannah’s question after nobody answered her.

Josh refused to be the one to answer.  So nobody did.  Then the ship moved.  It started to turn.  Josh put his hand to the glass.  Were they leaving?  Giving up?  Had they been waiting for a sign from the base?

“Don’t go,” he mouthed, unable to draw enough breath even to whisper the words.

The ship’s nose swung part way around, and then it moved forward.  It drifted slowly toward the dressing room.  Josh watched the smooth, seamless, gleaming silver side pass by the window.  It was superb construction.  There appeared to be no doors, though the dark circles were now clearly windows.  Completely tinted of course, Josh couldn’t see anything inside.  Then the ship slowed and stopped, broadside in front of the dressing room.  It slowly started to lower, and just before it touched the surface, several protrusions jutted out from the bottom.  They all stopped at different lengths, adjusting to the uneven surface so that the ship settled perfectly level.  The legs must have sensors in them.

“Why are they over there?” asked Naoki, clearly sounding disappointed since he was by the porthole that was next to the farthest dock.

“You think they can dock on our landing platforms?” Jim replied.  “That ship is ten times the size of one of our shuttles.”

 _Only about six times_ , Josh mused.

There was a dulled, metallic thud that echoed through the empty space of the dressing room.  Josh pushed away from the window, detangled himself from Sara and was the first to the door.  This time nine people squashed against him, all trying to peer through the one square window that showed the interior of the room.  It was an extremely limited view due to the three feet of space between the double doors of the airlock.  Technically the dressing room was a giant airlock, but in the interest of too much safety instead of not enough, the engineers had installed a more traditional airlock on the entrance between the base and dressing room.  This same double locking technology applied to the docks for the shuttles.

Josh tried to lean back to check the status of the room, but he was blocked in by Jim’s hulking form and Xiaodan’s trembling body.  Josh wondered if they were all petrified.  Was he?  No time to worry about that now.

“What’s the status of the room?” he asked.

“Um…depressurized,” someone answered.

“Damn.”

“Why?  What’s wrong?” Hannah wailed.

“Nothing.  They’ll just be in suits.”

“How will they get the door open?” Evgeny asked.

“Maybe we should open it,” Xiaodan said.

“No,” Hannah said harshly.

“Well, we don’t want them to break the door.  Or cut through it or something.  It will destroy the airlock.  And I’ll be the one who has to fix it.”

“ _Can_ we open it from in here?” Sara asked.  “I thought that was one of the safety features.  You know, that someone in here couldn’t accidentally open the door while it was pressurized or someone wasn’t all the way in their suit.”

“That’s true,” Xiaodan responded.  “I guess we didn’t have a contingency plan for alien visitors.”

Josh smiled.  “No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.”

“What?”

“He’s quoting old things that nobody cares about,” Sanjay murmured.

“I get it,” Tim said softly.

Then there was more waiting.  A lot more waiting.  Eventually the group backed away from the door, but nobody left the docking bay.  Josh stayed by the door, leaning against the freezing metal and staring through the windows.  He could hear the soft rustling of clothes as the others fidgeted, stood up, sat down, and paced around.  Nearly half an hour passed before Evgeny broke the silence.

“Maybe we should go open the door?”  Everyone, including Josh, looked at him.  “I mean, maybe they’ve done their part, and they’re waiting for us to do ours.  They’ve asked to come in, maybe we need to let them in.  I mean, if you landed on someone’s moon base, would you just try to open their door or wait for them to open it for you?  I mean—”

“Will you stop with the ‘I means?’” Alexei griped.  “We talked about that.  Who the hell taught you English?”

Evgeny’s face tightened and he said something in Russian.  Alexei stood up, looking more than a little angry.

“Hey,” Tim said, stepping into the center of the room and putting his hands out.  “Calm down.”

Evgeny and Alexei were on opposite sides of the room, but it was a small enough space that it wouldn’t take much to close the distance.

“Everybody needs to stay calm,” Tim said.  “I understand this is a tense and new situation for everybody, but we’ve got to keep it together.”  He paused and Josh could tell he was debating whether or not to say the next bit, but he did.  “Our survival may depend upon it.”

Hannah buried her head further into her arms.  Evgeny let the air out of his lungs and leaned back against the wall.  Alexei didn’t sit back down, but he returned to his corner.  Sanjay, Naoki, and Xiaodan were sitting on the floor against the wall directly opposite from the airlock.  Sara and Jim were the pacers.  Josh looked at the faces of his comrades: tight and anxious.  There was still tension in the air, but it was back to being simple nervous waiting.

Josh bit lightly on his lower lip and tightened his crossed arms.  He really should move away from the door before he burned himself from the cold.  He gave one glance back through the window.

“Oh fuck!” he yelped and stumbled back, landing flat on his ass.

Everyone stared at him.  By the time they all managed to get over to the door, Josh was back on his feet.  They crowded the small square window again, now all seeing what had startled Josh so violently.

A figure stood in the doorway of the far side of the dressing room.  Dark, in shadows, haloed by a cool blue light, no discernable features.  It was straight out of a horror movie.  Not because it was so horrible, but because it couldn’t really be seen.  It was humanoid…a head, torso, two arms, two legs…that they could see.  And that was all they could see.  It stood motionless.  The door looked like it had been swung inward with no force or broken pieces.  It was almost like it had simply opened the door…like it lived here.

There was a thump from behind them, but none of them were startled or turned to see what had caused the noise.  They were transfixed by the figure.

“Oh, God, Hannah,” Josh heard Sara say.   The woman disappeared from his peripheral vision and Josh assumed the thump had been Hannah hitting the floor.

The figure moved.  It stepped out of the bluish light coming from its ship and into the hard, unforgiving bare CFLs of the dressing room.  It was in a suit unlike any a human used: it was dark blue and formfitting.  Josh couldn’t imagine a space suit being formfitting—how could it be pressurized?  There were markings on it.  Irregular stripes and bars on the arms, collars, and some across what would have been waist level on a human.  The markings were different shades of blue, some darker, some lighter, and some that appeared to be the exact same color as the suit.  There was something familiar about them.  Then it occurred to Josh that military uniforms had similar markings.  Could they be indicating its rank?  Honors?  Josh shook his head.  He knew better than to anthropomorphize it.  It could be dangerous to give it human reasoning and thinking patterns…that could lead to deadly misunderstandings.  He focused instead on the helmet.  It was round and not formfitting, so they probably had heads vaguely shaped like their own and features that required a little bit of space…unless it had a teeny tiny dinosaur head.  Not impossible.  It was blue as well, except for the opaque, dark red visor that took up a large portion of what could only be assumed was the front of the helmet.  It walked erect on two legs, in a very similar ambulatory pattern to humans.  It even gently swung its arms on the opposite side of the leading foot.

Josh cocked his head as he looked at the figure.  It was so similar in shape and movement to humans, he wondered briefly if he was wrong and they were time travelers.  And yet, there was something a little off about it too.  Had it been in a space suit similar to human construction, he would have filled in the missing figure easily with a human body.  However, the formfitting nature of the figure’s suit allowed Josh to see that it was just slightly disproportionate to a human.  He couldn’t quite put his finger on it while it was still covered in the suit, but it seemed a little…stretched.  Though small.  As it drew closer, Josh could tell that it had to be shorter than him by at least six inches.

It walked right up to the door on the inside of the dressing room.  It was small, but its head cleared the bottom of the window.  Josh held his breath.  There was nothing but an airlock between him and a creature from outer space.  Granted that meant there were two extremely thick, double paneled steel doors with windows so thick there was a slight distortion around the edges of objects viewed through them, but that only amounted to about five feet.  Josh put his hand to the handle.  He wouldn’t be able to open the door, not without using the panel to the right of the door to release the electronic lock that held the mechanical lock in place.  But he couldn’t feel his fear anymore.  He just wanted to open the door and see it.  Touch it.  Hopefully it wouldn’t get offended.

It raised its hand.  Again, it was very humanoid in shape and Josh counted one thumb-like appendage and four fingers wrapped around a small, oval, metal device.  He could tell it was a device because it had buttons and blinking lights.

“Is that a bomb?” someone whispered.

“Don’t be so pessimistic,” Josh recognized Sanjay’s voice, but he sounded nervous.

The figure raised its other hand and pointed to an isolated button on the device, then it bobbed the device toward the window very deliberately.  Josh counted the movements: ten.  Then the figure turned away from the door.  It set the device on a large container that housed some drilling equipment, and then it walked back across the room.  It stepped through the doorway, but did not pull the door shut behind it.  Instead, Josh could just make out a door being shut on its side.  That door was inside a larger structure.  The figure had set up its own air lock on the other side.  And then there was no movement.  The humans waited.

“Was that it?” Alexei said.  “They flew a gajillion miles to give us a remote control?”

“I think we’re supposed to use it,” Josh said.

“Oh, hell no,” Jim boomed.  “No using alien technology.  No way.  It could very well be a bomb.”

“So what if it is?” Josh asked, pushing away from the door and forcing everyone to break away from him.

“Careful!” Sara called out as everyone backed up.  She dragged the still woozy Hannah over a couple of feet since she wouldn’t get off the floor.

Josh continued.  “If it is a bomb and we don’t use it, don’t you think they have a bigger one they could use?  We already determined that there’s nothing we can do here if they are hostile.  We don’t even have guns up here.  We agreed to try to greet them.  To trust, or at least hope, that they’re just explorers.  I think we should just use it.”

Jim grumbled some more, but no one really argued with his reasoning.

“I’ll go,” Josh said.  “We keep one or two suits on this side of the door, don’t we?  Help me get a suit on and I’ll use the device.  Out there.  So.”

No one argued with him there either.  Josh hoped the figure wouldn’t become impatient with them, but it took nearly twenty minutes to get him suited up.

“This would be so much easier if they would close the other door,” Alexei grumbled as he adjusted the helmet on Josh’s head.  “Then we could just pressurize the room.”

“They have an airlock set up and if we pressurize our side it might damage theirs,” Josh said, not enjoying the sound of his voice bouncing around inside the helmet.  Not enjoying the whole feel of the suit.  He’d never been completely suited up for a space walk before.  This stuff was heavy in full Earth gravity.  Worse than SCUBA equipment.

“What?” Alexei asked.

“Just science garble, I’m sure,” Sanjay said.  “Xiaodan, can you get the airlock ready?”

“All set.  He can go in.  Remember, Josh.  Wait for the steady green light over the door before you open it.  On either side.”

Josh nodded, but the helmet didn’t move, so he gave them an awkward thumbs up.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Hannah asked, finally back on her feet and chewing her thumbnail bloody.  “What if it’s a trick to lure him out there so that they can abduct him and fly away with him?”

“Well, that’s why we’re sending Josh,” Sanjay said.

Josh ignored them all and opened the airlock.  He stepped haltingly inside, having trouble getting his foot over the bottom lip.  Then he closed it firmly behind him and made sure he had the lock completely in place like he’d been shown how to do.  The light over the door turned red.  He turned awkwardly around to face the other door.  That light was red too.  There were two quick beeps of an alarm, and then the sound of rushing air.  It wasn’t as loud as Josh thought it would be, nor were there any creaking noises as the pressure changed (for which he was very grateful).  It took about ninety seconds.  The noise stopped.  The light turned green.  Josh heard the electronic lock release.  He reached out with a hand, pulled back the mechanical lock, and then turned the handle.

The door swung open.  He couldn’t feel a difference between the two spaces.  He supposed he shouldn’t be able to.  And because of that he assumed the gravity would be the same.  But he’d forgotten (or hadn’t been paying attention) when they’d been told that the dressing room would have a slightly lower gravity in order to facilitate putting on and taking off the heavy equipment.  So, he stepped down too hard, lost his balance, caught his back foot on the lip of the door and tumbled out into the room, flailing head long into the lockers that housed the space suits.  He fell to his hands and knees and waited anxiously for any signs that he had torn the suit or broken something vital to him staying alive.  Everything appeared to be fine, so he stood up.  It was somewhat easier out here in the lower gravity, but that was a small comfort.  What must the figure be thinking?  Their human suits were bulky and clumsy compared to its, and Josh had just fallen onto the floor like a jackass.  It might be considering turning around and leaving right now instead of getting involved with what must clearly be a developmentally challenged species.

Josh walked over to the crate with the device.  He picked it up and wanted nothing more than to remove his gloves and feel the metal and test its weight, but he at least had more sense than that.  He located the button the figure had pointed out and pushed it, holding it for three seconds just in case.  When he released it, three yellow lights lit up and blinked in long steady succession.  Josh counted to ten at the same speed the figure had made the gestures, but he must have been counting a little slow.  Just before he thought “eight” there was a quiet tone and a larger light near the activation button turned a steady yellow.  Josh waited.  Nothing further happened.  He put the device back down and looked at the far end of the room.   He could so easily cross the space, step through the doorway, and peer through the door on their airlock.  He wanted to, thought it should be okay since the figure had done the same, but Josh was still embarrassed by his little tumble.  So, he just turned around and reentered the airlock on his side.  He shut the door behind him, waited for the lights to change, and then carefully stepped back inside the base.  Everyone was asking him questions before they even helped him to get the helmet off.

“What happened?”

“What did it do?”

“What did it look like up close?”

“Did you feel anything?”

“Hey man, I gave you a 6.8 for your swan dive out there.”

Josh gave Sanjay a peevish look for that last comment.

“I don’t know what it did.  I pushed the button, some lights came on, I counted to ten and it finished whatever it was doing and another light turned yellow.  That was it.”

“Do you think—”

“It’s coming back!” Sara cried.

Everyone crowded at the door yet again, only this time they were able to step into the airlock and have only one door in between them and the visitor.  Well, Tim, Alexei, and Naoki could fit in.  The rest were stuck outside.  Evgeny and Sanjay were trying to see around the puffiness of Josh’s space suit.  The figure walked across the room.

“What’s happening?” Sara and Xiaodan asked at almost the same time.

The figure picked up the device, seemed to look at it, and then walked up to the door.  The three closest to it backed up.  Now it was just a little too close for comfort.  Josh tried to stand on his tip toes, but the suit was too heavy.  He peered over Naoki’s head the best he could.

The figure held up the device and pointed at it with one, thin finger.  The equivalent of the pointer finger on a human.  Hell, it was probably the pointer finger on this thing too.  Then it pointed at them.  Tim and Naoki backed up a step.  Alexei pointed at himself in question.  Then the figure pointed down, but still inside the airlock.

“Inside,” Josh murmured.  Then louder, “I was supposed to use it inside.”

“So they can poison us?” Hannah asked.

“Nothing came out of it, Hannah.  Jesus.  Everyone out.  Help me get my helmet back on.  I’m going to bring it in here.”

The three inside the airlock backed out while there was more muttering about bringing the device _inside_.  The figure backed away while Alexei put the helmet back on for Josh.  Josh was in the sealed airlock by himself in a couple of minutes, waiting for the lights to change.  When it did, he opened the door and was very careful to step through into the room this time.  So careful in fact that he didn’t notice the figure hadn’t completely left the dressing room this time.  It stood on its side, hands clasped behind its back.  Josh stared.  Couldn’t move.  Could barely breathe.  The figure seemed to be staring back, though it was hard to tell with its opaque visor.  Josh wished he could pinch himself, but the thick suit prevented that.  He needed to pull himself together, but he was enraptured by the figure.  So human…and yet…like he’d thought before…just a little bit off.  Without even thinking he lowered his eyes to see how the formfitting suit fit around the figure’s hips and legs.  Specifically, how it fit in between them.  There was no tell-tale bulge.  That didn’t necessarily mean anything of course, but maybe the figure was female.

Josh snapped his eyes back up.  It probably couldn’t tell what he’d been looking at.  Hell, if it truly was a different species, staring there might not mean anything to it.  Maybe looking at its hands would be lewd and that was why it held them behind its back.  Josh wondered why he still thought of it as an “it.”  Probably because while there didn’t appear to be anything between its legs, there also was clearly nothing on its chest.  Then again, that was him trying to anthropomorphize the figure.  They may not even have gender in the same way that humans did.  Not all species that reproduced sexually had clearly defined male and female genders.  He assumed that as large as the creature was, it had to reproduce sexually.  Right?  Self-replicating techniques couldn’t create the kind of diversity needed to generate such a complex organism.  Right?  And there were a lot of different ways of reproducing sexually without actually touching another member of your species.  They could pollinate like flowers.

Josh laughed to himself.  How human of him: he was more curious about how aliens got it on than what the device he was holding in his hand could do.  He turned to look at the figure and held up the device.  The figure pointed behind Josh.  Josh nodded, again not moving the helmet, so he just turned around and walked back inside the airlock.  Once inside the moon base, he didn’t bother to take the helmet off.  Everyone crowded around him, watched the device intently as he pushed the button.  He didn’t hold it down this time but released it immediately.  The yellow lights came on again and this time when he counted to ten, he made it to ten before the soft beep and the large light flashed on, kind of bluish-green this time instead of yellow.

Josh looked at the group.  They were looking at him expectantly.  He noticed Hannah holding her breath.  He thought about hanging around a little bit longer just to see how long she could go, but he was anxious to see what the figure would do with the device now.  Once more he entered the airlock, more than tired of being in the space suit.  After this, if it still wasn’t what the figure wanted, he was going to make someone else suit up.  He was starting to get a little claustrophobic.  Not a desirable trait in an astronaut, but if he was honest with himself he was really just a physicist who was in good shape so they were willing to blast him into space with the others.  He and Sara actually had that in common.

Josh started to put the device on the crate, but then noticed the figure had waited for him.  It was crossing the small space to him.  So ethereal, so graceful.  It tripped over a stray cord and stumbled into the crate.  It straightened quickly and stood stock still.  Josh laughed.  It had to be human.  A human from the future after their physical forms had evolved some more.  And if not, at least it was good to know that while they might be ages apart in technology, they were still delightfully…human?  They were going to have to come up with a new word to cover the familiar antics of similar yet different species.

Josh slowly held out the device to the figure.  It reached out and took it from him, and then it turned around and left.  Either it was embarrassed or had gotten all the information it needed and was now heading home.  Not knowing what else to do, Josh went back to the base.

Fifteen minutes later the suit was finally off and Josh could breathe again.  He had stripped down to his undershirt to put on the suit, but he’d still been in his cotton/polyester blend uniform pants and he had started to sweat.  He ran a hand through his damp hair, trying to get a little air to his scalp.  He thought of his sisters as his fingers slipped through his hair.  The youngest had complained that the girls gotten the stiff, kinky hair of their black mother while he’d been lucky to get the smooth hair of their white father.  The older sisters had yelled at her for giving into societal prejudices and thinking that “white” hair was the ideal.  She’d merely made a face at them and said, “You like your hair so much?  Brush it!”

Josh smiled.  Nikia was a trip.

“So, now what?” Naoki asked, almost sounding bored with the adventure.

“What did you do to it?” Sanjay asked.

“What do you mean?” Josh asked.

“Why did it stumble?”

Josh laughed.  “It tripped on a cord.”

The group collectively tried to bite back smiles.

“Well, that’s almost kind of a relief,” Evgeny said.

“I thought so too,” Josh said.

“Did you touch it?” Hannah asked, Band-Aids wrapped around both her thumbs.

“No, I don’t think so.”

“I mean when you handed it the device.”

“No.  But, even if I had, we’re both wearing space suits, so…”

“Are you sure that isn’t its skin?”

“Pretty positive actually.  I think it might not only be a space suit, but a uniform as well.”

“So, what now?” Naoki repeated.

“I guess we wait,” Josh said.  “Unless we want to give them something to take into their place.”

“Like what?” Tim asked, sounding like he was seriously considering the idea.

“Does anyone have a theory as to what the device did?” Xiaodan asked.

“Well,” Josh said, not meaning to be the one who had to answer, “when I used it in the dressing room, the light turned yellow.  In here, it turned blue-green.  So, what are the differences between in here and out there?”

The group pondered this.

“Gravity?” Evgeny said.

“That’s one.”

“Well, it was depressurized out there,” Alexei said.  “So maybe the pressure.”

“Or what causes the pressure,” Josh said.  “The atmosphere.”

“Oh!” Sanjay caught on first.  “It was taking a reading of the composition of the air!”

Josh nodded.  “That’s my first instinct.  It was seeing what the air is composed of.”

“Why?” Hannah demanded.

Josh couldn’t stop the smile that spread over his lips.  “To see if it can come in.”

Hannah closed her eyes and put a hand to her stomach.  She turned way.  “I don’t feel so good.”

“Josh,” Sara admonished him softly.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset her.  I’m just…excited.”

“Yeah?” Sanjay asked dryly, crossing his arms over his chest, “Well, if our little friend does decide to stop by, I nominate you to be the one to try to communicate with it.  If that’s okay with you, Tim.”

Tim spoke immediately.  “No problem at all.”

Josh shrugged.  “Sure.  It’ll probably be all hand gestures and drawings though.”

“Unless they can probe telepathically into our minds,” Alexei said.  “You better be careful, Hannah.  If they can sense your fear they might mind melt your brain.”

“Fuck you, you Commie cocksucker!”

“Hey, cool it!” Tim said.  He glared at Alexei.  “Do you have to piss everybody off?”

He shrugged.  “Makes life more interesting.”

“This isn’t interesting enough for you?” Evgeny asked incredulously, pointing out the air lock window.  “You’re just an asshole.”

Alexei and Evgeny broke into an argument in Russian.

“SHUT-UP!” Jim bellowed.  “No more of this bullshit tonight!  All right?”

Alexei backed down.  Josh thought it was smart of him.  Even if you knew the giant wasn’t allowed to do anything to you and therefore probably wouldn’t, it didn’t make it any less scary.

“I really hate to be a pest here,” Naoki said, “but _now_ what?”

“Let it analyze its data,” Josh said.  “It’ll either leave, or come back over.”

“And how long will that take?”

“I don’t know!” Josh said exasperatedly.  “Five minutes, five hours, five days.  I have no idea how their technology works.”

Naoki put his hands in the air.  The room was developing that bad tension again.

“So, who wants to take bets on what they look like?” Sanjay asked.

“What do you mean?” Sara asked.  “Obviously humanoid.”

“Maybe,” Sanjay said slyly.  “Could be anything under that helmet.  But even if you say humanoid, what skin color, what eye color, what hair color?  Nostrils or gills?  Scales or fur?”

Nobody replied right away.

“Scales,” Alexei said softly.  Everybody looked at him.  “I’m thinking scales.  But not fish scales, like snake scales.”

“Oh, that’s creepy!” Sara cried.  “How about fur?  Like bunny fur?”

This started a distracting conversation that the group latched onto and focused their mental power.  Josh half-listened to the ideas being thrown around, and leaned against the door of the airlock.  He watched the other side of the room.  He didn’t want to be surprised again if it came back out.  It was probably about twenty-five to thirty minutes after Josh had initially handed the device back to the figure that the door to its airlock opened.  Despite waiting for it, Josh was startled again.  Only this time all he did was start slightly.  And it wasn’t because the figure had come back out, but because it wasn’t alone.  The second figure was humanoid, but again, not quite right somehow to be human.  It was wearing the same formfitting blue suit with similar, yet not identical markings.  It wore the same blue helmet with opaque dark red visor.  It was significantly taller than the first, maybe around Josh’s height.  Possibly taller Josh determined as they drew closer.  He should probably tell the others now.

“Guys?” Josh said, not taking his eyes off the figures.

“Yeah?” someone replied.

“It’s coming over.  With a friend.”

Josh waited for the crush.  He heard everyone move, but no one touched him.  This confused Josh enough that he looked away from the figures.  Everyone had pushed back against the opposite wall.  Josh stared at them in surprise, and then looked at Tim.  “Can I let them in?”

Tim tried to speak, couldn’t, and nodded instead.

Josh looked back out the window.  They were on the far side of the airlock.  He closed the door on his side, and hoped he pushed the right button to depressurize the room since Xiaodan didn’t seem interested in coming over and helping him.  The light on his side of the door turned red.  He assumed he’d done it right.  Then he pushed the button that released the electronic lock.  He could hear it click on his side, hopefully they could too.  Though, once again, who knew how their auditory senses worked?  He was wondering if the figures could work out the handle when the mechanical lock slid back and the door opened.  Well, of course they could.  They’d gotten it open at the other end.  The two of them stepped into the small space and shut the door behind them.  Josh pushed the button to pressurize the airlock, but the panel beeped at him.  He pushed the button again.  He got the same warning sound.

“Make sure it’s locked on the other side,” Xiaodan said softly.

Josh looked in the airlock.  The figures were waiting patiently.  He pointed inside, trying to aim for the door.  They both looked behind them, and then back at Josh.  He pantomimed pulling the lock and hoped his motion was getting across to them.  The smaller of the two turned around and looked at the door again, and then reached out and slid the lock over.  Josh nodded at them, hoping that gesture was universal.  Then he pushed the button on the panel again.  The airlock began to pressurize.

Behind him, someone started to whisper the Lord’s Prayer.

Ninety seconds later, the light over the door turned green and a little tone sounded, just like he’d finished baking something in his little sister’s Easy Bake Oven.  The electronic lock released.  Josh reached out a hand and pulled the mechanical lock back.  He placed a hand on the handle and hesitated, and then he swung it open.

Josh didn’t know why he thought they would look different without the space suit helmet or the airlock between them, but they didn’t.  They still looked like slender, humanoid creatures in dark blue formfitting suits and round helmets with opaque red visors.  They looked the same, but it wasn’t the same.  If he wanted, he could reach out and touch them.  Feel them with his own skin.  He stared at them for a few seconds.  They stared back.  Quite possibly they were looking around him and not right at him, but they didn’t move.  Josh forced himself to step back, giving them space to step into the room.  The shorter one didn’t hesitate and stepped over the lip of the airlock and was the first alien ever to step foot onto a human made moon base.

It was then that Josh noticed he carried something over his shoulder.  It was a small, metal cylinder that hung almost like a purse at his side.  There was a thin, blue plastic tube wrapped around the top of the cylinder and a small, clear blue piece made of stiffer plastic attached to it.  These guys liked blue a lot.  And of course Josh was using the names of materials that looked closest to what he was seeing.  He couldn’t say for sure what kind of materials these guys used, but he didn’t think it would be a good use of his time to try to determine what they might really be.  So, he was just going to use terms that were familiar to him until he learned otherwise.  The taller one stepped into the room and he also carried a cylinder.

Josh tried not to hold his breath.  He didn’t want to wind up coughing and looking crazy.  He could only imagine how it must look to the visitors to have one person standing forward and nine others pressed against the wall like frightened tabby cats.  It they even knew what a tabby cat was.  The two visitors looked at each other.  Josh wondered if they had radios in their helmets and could communicate with one another.  Or what if Alexei was right and they had telepathic powers?  Josh wasn’t really too concerned about that one.  While it might possible for them to communicate with some sort of sixth sensory organ like the lateral line sense of fish or the Ampullae of Lorenzini that sharks had, the requirements needed to convey complex thoughts without visual, auditory, or tactical cues were beyond the capabilities of normal physiology.  That he knew about it.  Josh sighed quietly.  He was surprised to discover that he didn’t like something existing in the universe that he didn’t know about.

Then the visitors raised their arms, manipulated some device on the bottoms of their helmets, and opened them.  They opened vertically, the hinges being on the tops and the seams on either side of the visor.  They lifted the helmets off, the short one shaking his hair free.

Male.  That was Josh’s first thought, but the more he looked at him, the less he was 100% sure, though he didn’t change his opinion.  His second opinion: beautiful.  He was indeed quite humanoid with a perfectly symmetrical face consisting of a forehead, two eyes, a straight though slightly flat nose, a pair of lips, and angular jaw bones that ended in a softly rounded chin.  His eyes were big.  Disproportionately big compared to a human, but only slightly so.  He blinked those large eyes, drawing attention to the lime green irises.  Not lime like the bright fake color of novelty T-shirts, but the almost clear green of the inside of the freshly sliced fruit.  His pupils were black, but not round.  They were rectangular and horizontal, almost like a goat.  His skin…wasn’t white.  And not white like a Caucasian, but white like snow.  But, not white.  There was some color, not any specific color Josh could pinpoint, but some color, and only in certain spots.  The alien shifted his weight to one foot and the points of color shifted, leaving the previously colored spots that not white.  Iridescent.  His skin was iridescent.  The way fish and snakes could be because of their scales.  Maybe Alexei was right: they had scales.  But, Josh was only three feet from him and he couldn’t see any scales.  His hair reminded him of corn silk.  Not only in color, but in fineness and lightness.  It was pulled into a ponytail that reached just below the nape of his neck and waved delicately in the slight current generated by the air recycler.  There was a small tendril that had escaped the ponytail, and it almost floated it was so light.  He reached up a hand and tucked it behind his ear.  Josh stared at his ears.  They were in pretty much the same location on the sides of his head like human ears, but these did not resemble human ears at all.  They had no folds and were wide at the bottom and pointed at the top.  Not like elf ears.  But like cat ears, or terrier ears.  Only flat.  And pressed to the side of his head.  Though they only seemed attached at the base.  Josh discreetly moved a hand behind his back and softly snapped his fingers.  The ear closest to him stood up and turned in his direction.  Josh chomped down on his lower lip excruciatingly hard, otherwise he might have grinned and started “awing” at him like he was a puppy.  He was such a beautiful creature.  Not necessarily in an attractive mate kind of way, but the same way men admired a graceful horse or exotic bird.  Josh was a little ashamed by the thought, but his third one was, “I wanna keep him.”

His companion folded his helmet closed, drawing Josh’s attention.  He’d almost forgotten there were two of them.  This one had blue skin.  Not in an “Oh my gosh that guy’s skin is blue!” kind of way, but more like, “Hey, is that guy’s skin…blue?”  It was a translucent blue that also had points of color in it.  His skin was also iridescent, just blue instead of the not white.  Josh wondered if one of them was the norm and the other a minority.  Or did their species have a large variety of iridescent skin colors?  Greens and pinks and yellows…how radiant they must be in a group.  He had familiar facial features as well, though the shape of his face was more masculine than his shorter companion’s.  More masculine to the human eye of course.  His nose was a little wider and flatter, but if Josh let himself assume that this species judged attractiveness in a similar way to humans, then he was still a handsome specimen.  His eyes weren’t white, but that completely washed out ice blue that isn’t really blue at all.  The taller one’s hair was jet black, and cut very short to his head.  This made it seem almost the same texture as human hair.  Very fine human hair, but definitely less wispy than the other’s.  His hair covered the same amount of skull in the same kind of pattern that a human’s did, and their heads had the same general shape, but they were just a little bit different.  Put a gun to his head and Josh wasn’t sure he’d be able to tell you what the difference was, but he could still see it all the same.  Now he wasn’t so sure he’d be able to see the difference in their bodies even if they took their suits off.

Josh’s eyes drifted back to the little one.  He turned his head and looked at Josh.  He closed his eyes, squeezed them tight, then blinked a couple times before opening them again.  Josh noticed two things: he had very long eyelashes, and his pupils could constrict both vertically and horizontally as they had turned into small squares before widening back out to long rectangles as they readjusted to the light.  Then Josh noticed he didn’t have eyebrows.  He glanced at the taller one.  Neither did he.  He turned his eyes back to the small one again.  He couldn’t stop staring at him.  He hadn’t appeared to have shifted his gaze either.  He raised his hand to about shoulder height, palm facing Josh.  Josh mirrored him.  The visitor wiggled his fingers.  Josh did the same.  The visitor smiled and turned to his companion.  He spoke and it seemed to startle everyone in the room, including Josh.  They couldn’t understand him of course, but it was clearly a language.  Slightly choppy, slightly sing-songy.  Kind of like Cantonese, but not quite as sharp.  His tone was mid-range; if Josh had heard it over a phone he’d never be able to guess if it was male or female.  But it also had a very smooth, rich quality to it.  It was a pleasant voice.  No, a pleasing voice.  It wasn’t just okay to listen to, it was desirable to hear.  Or maybe that was just him.

The tall one frowned at whatever it was the little one said.  Then he pulled back the sleeve of his suit, disconnecting it from the glove.  He moved his thumb around quickly on his wrist and then turned it toward the smaller one.  He had pulled his sleeve back as well and placed his wrist close to his companion’s but didn’t touch it.  They held there momentarily and then dropped their arms, pushing the sleeves back down.  The little one was smiling, but a closed lipped smile.  Josh was curious to see their teeth.

“What just happened?” Evgeny whispered.

“Unless I’m mistaken,” Sanjay said just as quietly, “I think the tall one just lost a bet.”

Josh smiled.  Now that Sanjay mentioned it, that was what it had looked like.  If it were possible to pay someone through your wrist.  Maybe they could.  Maybe they had microchips implanted under their skin.  The next evolution of the iPad.

“Well, I’m a little underwhelmed,” Naoki said.  “They do look different, but they are definitely bipedal hominids.  I was expecting at least one tentacle or something.”

“That’s because Japanese are pervs,” Alexei said.

Josh was nearly dying of cuteness overload as he watched the little one’s ears twitch each time one of them spoke.  But still he looked at Josh.  Josh tightened his jaw muscles as he stared at him.  Naoki was insane.  There was nothing underwhelming about him.  In fact, his exoticness was dangerous.  He couldn’t let himself get this obsessed.  He couldn’t keep him.  He wasn’t a pet.

The twelve…people…stood staring at each other.  No one spoke and Josh could tell that the visitors were scrutinizing the humans as intently as they were being scrutinized.  Josh followed the little one’s eyes.  He seemed to be looking at each human individually, but before moving on to the next one, those clear green eyes returned to Josh.  Did he look as foreign and beautiful to him?  Could the little one not tell 100% for sure what his gender was?  Josh laughed softly at the thought, drawing the little one’s eyes again and causing both ears to perk up.

“So, fearless leader,” Sanjay said, “are you going to engage?”

“I thought we agreed to let Josh do the talking,” Tim said hoarsely.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Sanjay said dryly.

Had Tim been in a better frame of mind, he might have reamed Sanjay out good for that one.  Josh nodded and thought.  What do you say to someone who doesn’t understand you and quite possibly won’t even be able to interpret simple pictographs if commonplace objects looked too different?  Then Josh decided he shouldn’t try to figure how to talk to aliens, but just do what he would do with any person he was meeting for the first time.  Say hi and introduce himself.

Josh cleared his throat and licked his dry lips.  The little one cocked his head at the movement.  Or maybe the noise.

“Hi,” Josh said.  “My name is Josh.”

The aliens glanced at each other and then back at Josh.

Josh pointed to himself.  “Josh.”

The little one pointed to himself and said, “Dosh?” his inflection clearly asking a question.

Josh shook his head and patted his chest twice.  “Josh.”

The little one smiled and pointed at him.  “Dosh.”

Josh smiled and said “ _J_ osh,” heavily emphasizing the J sound.

“Dch…Zch…Josh,” he managed to get out.  Clearly the J sound was not something they used in their language.

Josh nodded.

“Josh,” the little one said again, pronouncing the J even better.  He smiled, still closed lipped.  Josh really wanted to see those teeth.  The alien imitated the double chest pat Josh had done and said a two syllable word.  Until some linguist sat down and worked out how their language would translate to the English alphabet, he was just going to have to spell the words they gave him the way they sounded to his ears.  And what he had heard was “Naya,” like the name Maya.

“Naya,” Josh repeated.

The little one nodded.  No, not the little one anymore, Naya.

“Naya.  Nice to meet you.”

Naya blinked and looked confused.  Josh laughed softly and shook his head.  This was going to take forever.  The taller one nudged Naya and pulled something out of his pocket.  Josh hadn’t even been aware the suits had pockets.  The object was flat and grey and pointed at Naya.  Naya waved his hand in the air in mild annoyance.  He pointed to the tall one and said, “Ben.”

“Ben?” Josh repeated.  “Awesome.  That one’s easy.”  He turned back to the group that was still mostly pressed flat against the wall.  “Guys, this is Naya and Ben.”

Hannah face planted on the floor.  Sara and Naoki who had been standing next to her bent down to check on her.

“Oh, geez,” Sara said.  “I think she might have broken her nose.”

“Lovely,” Josh said.

He looked back at the aliens.  They looked concerned.  Josh waved a dismissive hand.

“She’s fine,” he said.

They still looked concerned, and now confused as well.  Well, of course they would.

“I need to take her to the med bay,” Sara said.  “Can someone help me carry her?”

Ben nudged Naya again and jiggled the grey item in his hand.  He spoke urgently to him, but Naya was more interested in what was going on with Hannah.

“Anyone?” Sara asked.

“I can,” said Naoki and Josh together.

“Josh, you should stay here.  You’re the spokesperson.  Naoki can—ah!”

Sara let out a squeal and backed away from Hannah, who was still unconscious.  The reason for her fright was that Naya had moved close to look at Hannah and Sara hadn’t seen him approach.  Her reaction had startled the alien who had jumped back as well, clamping his hands over his ears at the high-pitched wail.

There were some more urgent words from Ben.  Naya looked back at him and swept an arm toward the rest of the human crew.  He said something back that shut Ben up rather quickly.  Then Naya turned to Josh.  He indicated Ben and said some words, who then held up the grey thing.  Then Naya pointed to himself and then to Hannah, and then his eye.  Josh was really only clear on the first part.

“I think they want us to do something with that grey thing.”

“And what would that be?” Jim asked.

The aliens whipped their heads to look at him, clearly disturbed by the deepness of his voice.

“I don’t know.  I’m not an engineer.  Maybe the engineers should stay with Ben, and Sara and I should get Hannah to the med bay.”

“You’re going to leave us alone with them?” Xiaodan squeaked, causing the aliens to lay their ears flat.  They obviously did not enjoy the range of the human voice.

“What do you think they’re going to do to you that my presence would be able to prevent?”

Xiaodan stared at him with his mouth open.  Then he shook his head.  “Nothing I guess.”

“Exactly.”

“But, they seem to like you.  At least the little one does.”

“Naya.”

Naya looked at him.  Josh wasn’t sure how to convey “Yes, I said your name but wasn’t calling you” with hand gestures so he didn’t even try.

“Then make him like you too, okay?  Go take a look at the grey thing and try to figure out what they want you to do with it.”

Josh bent down and awkwardly hefted Hannah up in his arms.  She wasn’t heavy, but she was spindly, which made her difficult to balance.  Josh nodded to Sara.

“Let’s go.”

They started to leave the room, and then Josh heard Ben say something sharply.  He turned back, worried that maybe Ben had pulled a gun and was telling them all not to go anywhere and put their hands where he could see them.  But it wasn’t Josh he was angry at; Naya appeared to be following Josh and Sara.

Naya and Ben had a quick, heated argument, and then Naya turned abruptly and pushed on Josh’s back, getting him to move out of the docking bay.  Sara continued to lead and the trio walked down the hallway.  A sharp word coming from Ben that could only have been a curse word followed them.

“He’s a little pushy, isn’t he?” Sara murmured out of the side of her mouth like Naya could understand her.

“Yeah, tell me about it.  I’m still not entirely sure which one of them is in charge.”

“Maybe neither is.  Maybe they’re a couple of bandits that stole a ship and accidentally blasted themselves here.”

Josh laughed.  “That would be funny, but I doubt it.  I really do think they’re wearing uniforms.  Maybe military in nature.  Or something similar.”

They turned a corner and Josh looked back to make sure Naya was still with them.  He wasn’t.  Josh’s stomach dropped.  Had they split up the crew on purpose?  Were the others dead?  Had Naya gone off looking for ways to blow up Earth?  Josh went back around the corner and saw Naya gawking at one of the mechanical rooms that housed the machinery that kept the oxygen flowing.

“Naya?”

The creature turned at the sound of his name and quickly sprinted down the hall to catch up to them.  When he did he started to speak, and then gasped.  He gasped again, drawing in a harsh breath.  His eyes bulged a little.  Josh recognized the signs easily enough: he couldn’t breathe.

“Sara!”

Sara turned back.  “What?”

Then she heard the rasping gasps from Naya.  By the time Sara got back to them the alien had pulled the stiff plastic cup from the top of the metal cylinder up to his nose.  Two small plastics pieces inside the small cup fit into his nostrils.  The cup was attached to the tubing and Naya hit a latch on the cylinder.  He shut his mouth and breathed deeply through his nose.  The plastic cup fogged up when he exhaled, and then he took another deep breath.  The panic left his eyes as his body replenished itself with whatever it had been missing.

“Is that an oxygen tank?” Sara asked.

“Maybe.  Obviously our atmosphere isn’t a perfect match to theirs.  They must have determined they could probably get by okay with our air, but brought a supply of their own just in case.  Maybe our level of oxygen is too thin for them.  Like when we climb mountains on Earth.”

Naya turned off the cylinder and slowly removed the mask.  He looked at them and smiled somewhat embarrassedly at them.  Josh smiled back to try to reassure him.  He wanted to reach out and touch him, but that would have required putting Hannah down, who was now starting to feel a little heavy.

“Come on, Sara, let’s go.  But slowly so we don’t stress his system.”

They walked slowly through the corridors, which gave Josh a good opportunity to watch Naya as he took in his surroundings.  He wasn’t getting used to his appearance anymore than Naya seemed to be growing unimpressed with the blank, repetitive white walls.  They shuffled into the med bay, which was more white walls, but also filled with all kinds of equipment and cabinets full of supplies.  Josh turned sideways to get Hannah through one of the narrow doors that led to a private room with a gurney.  He placed her gently down and brushed her hair back from her forehead.  She didn’t feel clammy or cold or too hot.  He figured that was probably a good sign.  Sara squeezed into the room with an armload of supplies.  Josh backed up to stand in the doorway so he wouldn’t be in the way.

“Should we try to tell him not to touch anything?” Sara asked as she snapped a white tube in half and held it under Hannah’s nose.

Josh glanced over his shoulder into the main room and saw the snoopy alien unrolling a roll of gauze.  It would probably be better not to tell Sara.  “What is that?” Josh indicated the white tube Sara was holding.

“Smelling salts.”

“Ah.  Very high-tech.”

Hannah started and awoke abruptly.

“And effective,” Sara grinned.

Hannah groaned and put a hand to her head.  “Ow.  My nose hurts.”

“I know, hang on.  I’m going to see if it’s broken and then I’ll give you something for the pain.”

“Maybe you should give her something to keep her zoned out for a while,” Josh muttered.

Sara gave him a “Well, duh” expression.

Josh smiled and reached out to rub Hannah’s hand.  He wasn’t particularly fond of her, but she’d had a rough day and didn’t deserve broken body parts.

“Oh, gosh,” she moaned.

“What is it, Spidergirl?”

“I had a bad dream.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“I dreamed…there was a space ship.  And we were invaded by 1970’s glam rockers.”

Josh threw his head back and laughed loudly.  Sara told him to shut-up.  But Josh could only reduce his laughter to giggles.  Now that he thought about it, Naya and Ben did vaguely resemble David Bowie’s alter ego Ziggy Stardust.

“Speaking of our little rock star,” Sara said.  “What’s going on out there?”

Josh turned to look, but only got partially around when he bumped into Naya.  He was trying to peer around Josh into the room.  Josh sucked in a breath.  He’d touched him.  He’d touched a frickin alien.  He raised a hand, dying to see what his hair felt like.

“Oh my God!” Hannah gasped.

Josh whipped his hand back and looked at her, trying to think of something to calm her down, but Sara had already plunged a needle into her arm.  She injected the contents quickly and Hannah’s eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed onto the gurney.

“Jesus Christ, Sara, what did you give her?”

“Nothing major.  She’s fine.”

Josh’s stomach squirmed as Sara probed around Hannah’s nose, which had a ring of purplish red around it, the beginnings of a very nasty bruise.

“Hmm, maybe she didn’t break it.  That’s good.”  Sara mumbled to herself some more as she applied a couple pieces of medical tape across the bridge of Hannah’s nose.

Josh noticed all this peripherally.  He was leaning on the doorjamb with his arms crossed (keeping his hands immobile) and watching Naya watch Sara.  The alien seemed to sense he was being watched and looked over at Josh.  Josh leaned forward, trying to get a better look at his strange eyes.  Naya stared right back.  He blinked slowly twice.  Josh copied him.  Naya’s lips turned up at the corner.

“Hey,” Sara said softly.

Josh looked at her, worried that if he was caught staring too much, they might start to realize that he was more interested in their visitor than he should be.  But _was_ he more interested than he should be?  Wouldn’t anybody be this intrigued by an alien no matter what it looked like?

“Yes?” he asked.

Sara chewed on her lower lip for a second as she stared at Naya.  Then she looked at Josh.

“Do you think…he’d let me…examine him.  A little bit?”

Josh gave her a mild leer.  “Are you saying you want to play doctor with him?”

Sara made a face and threw the cap of the hypodermic needle at him.  “No!”

Naya looked back and forth between them, clearly curious about the topic of conversation.  Sara pulled her latex gloves off and started out of the small room.  Josh and Naya backed up so that they could all stand in the main bay.  Sara walked over to the supply closet and put on a fresh pair of gloves.  Josh raised his eyebrows.

“Are you really going to probe him?  How ironic.”

“Hush.  See if you can get him to sit on the examining table.”

“Do we have time for this?”  Josh checked the watch on his wrist; they had been gone about fifteen minutes.  He’d never really been fond of watches and often went without, but they were an assigned piece of their uniforms.  Probably so they would never be late to an organizational meeting.  “I really think leaving the Nervous Nellies with the uptight alien is not a good idea.”

“Oh, come on.  Just a really quick…check up.”  She smiled brightly.

Josh shook his head.  “Like I know how to explain this.”

“He seems imprinted on you.  He’ll probably—”

“I think imprinted is the wrong choice of words.”

Sara shook her head and sighed.  “ _Fine_.  I’ll do it.”

She walked over to the table and said, “Naya.”

The alien turned his head.  He’d been looking at the rows and rows of stacked vacutainers with their various colored tops.  Sara waved him over.  Naya seemed confused for a moment.  Sara adjusted the position of her hand and tried again to indicate for him to come closer.  This time he seemed to understand, and walked over.  Sara patted the top of the examining table, the paper crinkling loudly.  Naya looked at the spot, then for some reason, he looked back at Josh.

“See, I told you he’d imprinted on you.”

Naya turned back at her voice.  Then he put a gloved hand on the table, running it over the paper.  He made a small face, but then slid the strap of the cylinder off his shoulder and set it on the floor.  He turned around and hopped up on the table.  His feet hung about a foot off the floor.  Sara picked up the tool with the mini flashlight that tripled for looking in ears, mouth, and nose.  She put on a disposable tip and started to lean close to Naya.  He leaned away.  Sara pulled back and showed him the instrument.

“It won’t hurt you.”

She started to lean forward again and Naya leaned away again.  Sara stood back up straight and frowned.

“You never had any pets, did you, Sara?”

“No, why?”

“Look at his ears.”

They were pressed completely flat to the sides of his head and bent back at almost a ninety degree angle in the middle.  Anybody who’d ever seen a pissed off cat or dog would recognize this body language as clearly saying, “Get that away from me before I claw your eyes out.”

“So, I guess he won’t let me take a look at him,” Sara sighed.

“Would you?”

“C’mere,” she commanded.

Josh shook his head, but came closer.  Sara grabbed his earlobe, eliciting an unintentional and hopefully unnoticeable shiver, and pulled him down.  She stuck the instrument in his ear and examined the ear canal for a few seconds.  Then she turned him and looked in the other.  When she was done she deposited the disposable tip in the red labeled biohazard trash can.

“You’ve got a little waxy build up.”

Josh frowned at her, but she was putting another tip back on and looking at Naya.  She gently jiggled the instrument in front of the alien.  He let out what must be a universal expression: a sigh of resignation.  He gripped the edge of the table, making the paper crinkle again, but turned his head slightly, showing Sara his ear.  Sara leaned forward, paused, waiting to see if he was going to pull away again, and then reached out a hand when he didn’t move.  She tapped the bottom edge of his still tightly folder ear.  He relaxed, and the ear opened.  Sara carefully put the tip of the instrument in the opening at the bottom of his ear, but made sure not to put it in too deep.  Josh watched for Naya’s reaction.  He was looking down at the floor, and then tilted his eyes up.  He focused on Josh.  Josh gave him what he hoped would be a reassuring or comforting smile.  Naya didn’t relax further, but he didn’t flinch away when Sara moved the instrument a little closer.  Then she walked around the table and looked in his other ear.  Josh waited for her to pop the tip off in the trash.

“Well?”

“Well, I’m a people doctor.  Well, human doctor.  All I know is that it doesn’t look very similar to human ear construction.  I can’t tell you if it looks like a cat’s or a bat’s or a dolphin’s or a platypus’.”

“Well, how is it different?”

“No eardrum for one thing.  Well, no visible eardrum.  I think the hearing organ must be very deep inside his head.  I really just saw nothing but a canal.”

“Hmm, you think that means he has better or worse hearing than us?”

“Hard to say.  Obviously they’re more sensitive to pitch than we are.”

Josh grinned.  “You noticed that too?”

“Yep.  So, maybe they pick up sounds better due to the larger surface area to catch the noises, but maybe it’s diminished or echo-y by the time it gets to their cochlear equivalent.”

Sara put another tip on the instrument and stood in front of Naya to look up his nose.  The alien leaned back and frowned.  Sara sighed.

“He’s not very cooperative.”

Naya jabbed a finger at Josh.  Sara nodded.

“Okay.”

“Okay what?” Josh asked.

Sara stuck the tip of the instrument up his nose.

“Hey!” he protested, but didn’t move, worried he might stab himself and give himself a nose bleed.

“I think he wants me to do everything to you first.”

“Well, I didn’t volunteer for this.”

“Oh, come on, Josh, please?  Aren’t you curious about him at all?”

“Not about what’s up his nose!”

Sara pulled the instrument back and popped off the tip.  “Your sinuses look good.”

“Thanks.”

Sara turned to Naya.  He had a slight frown on his face but allowed her to tilt his head back so she could fit the instrument up one nostril.  His nostrils sat more on the underside of his nose, so he had to tilt his head almost all the way back so that Sara wouldn’t have to crouch under him.

“Hmmm.”

“What?” Josh asked.

“They don’t really have sinuses.  I mean, obviously there’s a passage for the air to go through, but no large cavities.”

“Does that mean they don’t get allergies?” Josh asked enviously.

“No clue.”

Sara pulled the instrument out and Naya flexed and moved his nose around.  Sara crossed the room and got two tongue depressors out of a clear jar.  Then she came back and looked at Josh expectantly.

“Say ‘ah?’” he guessed.

“Yep.”

Josh opened his mouth and let out a droning “ahhh” sound.  Naya’s ears sat forward.  Sara put the tongue depressor in and shone the light down his throat.

“You’ve had your tonsils out.”

“In I as elve.”

“What?”  She pulled the tongue depressor out.

“When I was twelve.”

“Ah.”

She turned to Naya.  He didn’t really seem to be enjoying being a lab rat, but he opened his mouth.

“Whoa.”

Both Sara and Josh let out the soft exclamation.  They leaned forward together.  Naya closed his mouth and sat back.  Josh unconsciously reached out a hand to touch his chin, and started to tell him it was okay, but then he froze when his skin made contact with Naya’s.  He moved his fingers slowly under Naya’s chin, his thumb running across the top.  Then he slid his whole hand to feel Naya’s cheek.

“Josh…” Sara whispered a soft warning.

“Sara…it’s…”  Josh leaned in very close to try to see what he was feeling.  Then he could just barely see it.  He was covered in scales.  They were so tiny he could barely make them out.  But, they didn’t feel like scales.  Not like fish or snake scales.  It was almost like it was covered in something.  Some kind of hair or fur, but extremely fine.  He felt kind of like a peach, but much, much softer and with absolutely no prickliness.  He felt good.

Josh felt something warm on his lips.  He dropped his eyes down and saw that he had invaded the alien’s space so much that Naya’s soft exhalation of air through his parted lips had touched him.  Feeling his breath pass over his own lips felt obscenely intimate.  Josh leapt back, hands in the air.

“I’m sorry!” he cried.

Naya didn’t move, but his face shimmered a little bit more.

“What is it?” Sara asked.

Josh took another step back, feeling guilty for probably making Naya feel very uncomfortable when he was being trusting enough to let them examine him.

“He, uh, he’s just really soft.  Kind of like a peach.  But even softer.  And Alexei was right: he has scales.”

“Really?  I don’t see any at all.”

“They’re very tiny.  You have to get close.”

“Well, I think I’ll hold off on getting that close for a little while.”

“That’s probably a good idea.”

Josh had been watching Naya’s face.  The shimmering slowly faded back to just patches here and there that were hitting the light at the right angle.  Had he been blushing?  Josh’s own face felt a little warm; maybe he’d been blushing too.  Fortunately his skin never betrayed him.

“Well, now that you’ve molested him—”

“I did not molest him!”

“Do you think he’ll let us look at his teeth again?”

“Maybe.  Hey, you think he’s a he too?”

Sara cocked her head and looked at Naya.  “I don’t know.  He just kind of seems like a he.  Doesn’t he?”

“Well, I thought so.”

“There’s probably only one way to know for sure, but we won’t ask him to do that.”

“I should hope not.”

“Not tonight anyway.”

Sara looked at Naya and pulled her lips back from her teeth, and then pointed to him.  Naya didn’t notice the gesture though; he leaned forward and looked in her mouth.

“I guess turnabout is fair play,” Josh chuckled.

Sara closed her mouth and pulled back her lips again.  Naya repressed a sigh, but pulled his lips back.  Josh and Sara bent over a little to stare at his teeth.

“Well, considering how white they are, their skeletons are probably made mostly of calcium too,” Sara murmured.

“Hmm.  So.  I’m guessing carnivore?” Josh said dryly.

“Oh yeah.  We better not piss him off.”

“Definitely.”

In general, Naya appeared to have roughly the same number and size teeth that humans had.  There were some differences though.  He had four sets of two molars in each corner of the mouth with no sign of the so-called wisdom teeth, or third molar, that humans had.  Of course, like most humans, he may have had them removed, but that seemed unlikely since his two molars were already set against the back of his mandible.  His eight incisors (four on the top, four on the bottom) were noticeably larger than human incisors.  The biggest difference was that he had no pre-molars, probably in order to accommodate the canines.  Large, long, sharp—fangs?—protruded from his upper mandible.  Josh was certain he could take a chunk out of a human arm pretty easily.  Hell, these teeth could probably get through an armadillo.  There were no lower canines though.  Just empty space where the monstrous fangs probably fit when his mouth was closed.

“It must be a bitch if their teeth are crooked,” Josh commented.

“I bet orthodontists exist on their planet too.”

Josh laughed softly.

“Good grief,” Sara whispered softly.  “Space vampires.”

Josh laughed again.  “Now, now.  We don’t know they drink blood.  They may just eat a lot of meat.”

“Maybe we should call him _Draeden_ ,” Sara said the name with flare.

“Good Lord,” Josh griped.  “Don’t tell me you got sucked into that whole _Dark Rainbow_ thingie.”

“I can’t help it.  Clinton Keller is _so_ hot.”

“He’s like, sixteen.”

“So?  He’s obviously hit puberty.”

“Cradle robber.”

“Alien molester.”

“Ahgh!”

Sara smiled and stuck her tongue out at Naya.  He started back in surprise, and then made an amused face as he leaned in a little closer to examine her tongue.  She pointed to her tongue and then at him.  He tsked at her, but then opened his mouth and stuck his out.  It was black.

“Whoa,” Josh and Sara said again.

“Well, at least it’s not forked,” Sara sighed in relief.  Or maybe disappointment that he wasn’t really like _Draeden_.

Josh snickered.  “You know, with these guys, I wonder if it’s actually black, or just really, really dark blue.”

“I know right?  Why are they blue?”

“Why are we peach and brown and yellow?”

Sara raised the tongue depressor and opened her mouth pretty wide.  Naya copied her and she stuck the wooden instrument on his tongue.  He face screwed up like she’d given him a lemon, but he mostly kept his mouth open.  Josh bit his lip so as not to laugh, and Sara continued her examination, ignoring the alien’s discomfort.  Or quite possibly not even noticing it.

“Neat.  No uvula.”

“The hangie-thing in the back of the throat?” Josh asked.

“Yep.  By the way, awesome that yours is split.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Naya suddenly grabbed Sara’s wrist and pushed her hand away, moving the wood out of his mouth.  He made some more faces and scraped his tongue along his top teeth, the muscle just barely fitting between his canines.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Sara said.  She looked to Josh.  “Should we get him a mint or something?”

“That could make it worse.  Who knows what mint might taste like to him?  I mean, that thing doesn’t taste great, but it wasn’t that bad either.  But maybe for alien taste buds, it’s too much.”

“I guess.  I didn’t really get a good look though.”  She looked thoughtfully at Naya and fingered the tongue depressor.

Josh snatched it away from her.  “No.”

“ _Fine_.  I’m getting the stethoscope.”

Sara ran off and Naya’s ears went flat again, but they didn’t bend back.  They relaxed as he looked at Josh.  Then he raised a hand.  He extended his pointer finger and placed it lightly under Josh’s chin.  He tapped it gently, twice.  Josh opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue.  Naya grinned.  And it was a little fearsome.  So much so that Josh closed his mouth and took a step back.  Naya tilted his head in question.  Josh touched his incisors with his pointer fingers.  Naya seemed to understand right away that their differences in teeth sizes was a little disturbing to the humans.  He grinned again.  Josh smiled back and shook his head.  It was going to take some time to get used to that smile.

“You think they can French kiss?” Sara asked as she came up behind him.

“I wouldn’t want to try it,” Josh said.

“Okay.  Take your shirt off.”

“What?” Josh whipped his head around to look at Sara.

“Well, I have to do everything to you first, so I want him to see that I’m going to put this thing on his skin.  Plus, don’t you want to see him naked?  Find out if he’s really a boy.”

“Sara!  You can’t strip him down!”

“Just to the waist!”

“Sara!”

“Sara.”

They turned to look at Naya.  He pointed at Sara and said, “Sara?”

Sara nodded.  “Yes.  Sorry, you never learned my name.  It’s Sara.”

Naya nodded.  “Sara.”  His “R” sound was very sharp and made her name sound almost masculine.  Perhaps in their culture names that ended with an “a” were more typically male names while in Western languages on Earth it usually signified a feminine name.

“Come on, take your shirt off.”

“No!  Just stick it underneath.”

“Why are you being so weird about this?”

“Because.  We don’t know if it will offend him.”

“Why would it?”

“Would you take your shirt off?”

“No, but that’s different.”

“Why?  We don’t know for sure that he’s male.  And their species could be very modest.  I mean look at their suits.  They cover their necks and he hasn’t taken off his gloves.”

“Well, they’re space suits.  Of course they have to cover their entire bodies.  By the way, how do you think they pressurized them?”

“I have no idea.”

Sara tugged at his shirt.  “Come on, take it off.”

Josh pulled the hem down so hard he stretched it out.  “Woman.  My fiancée knows kung fu and she will get a report of everything that goes on up here!”

Sara smirked.  “Including your quasi-homoerotic infatuation with a space vampire?”

Josh’s jaw dropped.  He couldn’t think of a rebuttal, so he just shouted, “Everybody has been staring at them!”

“Not like we want to own them.”

Josh blushed.  So he had been a little obvious.  “Okay, fine.  But not in a romantic you belong to me way, but like…a pet.”

“I wonder how he would feel about that?”

“Sara,” Josh said sharply.

“Okay, okay.  Sorry.  Now take your shirt off.”

Josh shook his head, his fingers still curled in the bottom of his undershirt.  He looked at Naya.  The alien didn’t seem to know if he should be amused or worried.

“Come on!  You know we’re only going to have one chance to examine him.  Once Ben gets a hold of him it will be all business.  And he’ll remind him that maybe they shouldn’t let us know too much about their anatomy.  Just in case, you know?”

“You seem to think you know Ben pretty well.”

“Well,” Sara indicated Naya, “Ben’s obviously the smart one.”

Josh held back a laugh.  He groaned softly and then yanked his shirt off.  Sara snickered evilly and put the ear pieces in her ears.  She looked up and hesitated before putting the metal end to his chest.  Her eyes didn’t make it above his clavicles and she pulled one side of her lower lip into her mouth.

“Kung fu you say?”

“Black belt.”

“That’s a shame.”

Josh yelped and jumped away from the alien.  He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at him.  His large eyes looked even bigger since they were so round with surprise, and his arm was still outstretched, pointer finger extended from poking his nipple.  Sara had a hand to her mouth and was trying not to choke on her tongue as she gasp-laughed.

“I guess they don’t have those,” Sara burst out, laughing harder.

Naya snapped his hand back to his side, his face getting very shimmery.

“Shut-up, Sara.  You’re embarrassing him.”

“Sorry, sorry,” she gasped and settled down.  Then she giggled some more.

“How could they not have nipples?” Josh griped, holding his shirt over his chest.

“Maybe the men don’t.  Human males have them because fetuses develop the same for the first fourteen weeks before sexual differentiation.  Maybe they start out physically different as well as genetically.”

“Yeah, but then he would just assume I was female and hopefully wouldn’t just go around poking things like that.  I think you were right the first time.  He doesn’t know what it is.  But, how can that be?  How do they feed their young?”

“Well, obviously, Josh, they aren’t mammals.  Now move your shirt.”

Josh whined, but did as he was told.  He frowned at Sara as she huffed on the metal end of the stethoscope and then placed it on his chest.  She moved it once, her brows creasing in concern.

“Josh, are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Your heart rate is accelerated.  Like a lot.”

“Um, it’s been elevated for about two hours now.  Isn’t yours?”

“A little.  But I read everybody’s medical records yesterday, and I remember what your average resting heart rate is…it’s about 58.  That’s really impressive.  Right now, you’re up near 100.”

Josh shrugged.

“Look at Naya,” Sara commanded.

Josh cut his eyes over to the alien; he was watching with interest, his eyes traveling around Josh’s body.  Then Josh looked back at Sara.

“What was that for?”

“Just wanted to see if your heart would skip a beat.”

“Ugh.  You are so funny.”

“I know.  Deep breath.”

Josh inhaled and she moved the stethoscope as he exhaled.

“Again.”

He obeyed, and then she moved the stethoscope to his back and he breathed deeply twice more.

“Very good,” Sara said.  “You sound very healthy.”

“Thanks,” Josh mumbled and pulled his shirt back on immediately.

Sara turned to Naya and smiled brightly, holding up the end of the stethoscope.  Naya made a face, very similar to the one Josh had made when he’d capitulated to taking his shirt off.  He fidgeted and looked back and forth between them, his face getting a little shimmerier.  Josh shook his head.

“You don’t have to,” he said.  He nudged Sara’s arm down.  “Come on.  Let’s get back to the others.”

“Wait, he’s going to let me…”

Josh looked back at Naya; he was pulling his finger down through the fabric of his suit, starting with the high collar.  He wasn’t unzipping it or unbuttoning, just pulling a finger through it, causing the fabric to part.

“Does he have like…electrostatic clothes or something?” Sara asked.

“I don’t know.  But it’s kind of like that moon sand underwater stuff.”

“Wha?”

“Didn’t you have of that stuff as a kid?”

“Must not have made it to Canada.”

The top of the suit parted like a jacket.  Underneath was a thin, greenish shirt that looked kind of like it was made from cotton jersey.  Naya started to lift of the bottom of the shirt, but didn’t even get it high enough for them to tell if he had a bellybutton.  Then he put it back down and looked at them with puppy dog eyes.

“Good God he is cute,” Sara said.  “Kind of a scary thought that he can lure you in with cute looks and then tear you to bits with his teeth.”

“Yeah.  So, do you think you can do it over the shirt?”

“Yeah.  Maybe he is a girl.”

“Maybe.”

Sara stepped forward and moved the end of the stethoscope toward…him?  Josh was going to just keep calling Naya a he…for now.  Naya kept his shirt held down.  Sara nodded and paused before putting the metal to his chest, waiting for his permission.  He gave a curt nod and Sara put the stethoscope to his chest.  She moved it around a couple of times, a bemused smile on her face.  Without looking at Josh, Sara said, “Breathe deep.”

“I don’t think he understands you.”

“That’s why I was talking to you.  See if you can get him to imitate you.”

Josh looked at Naya and took in a deep breath.  The alien just watched him.  Josh tried again.  Naya breathed in, but not as deeply as Josh.

“Again,” Sara said.

Josh took in a breath.  Naya took in a shallow breath, and then tapped his chest.

“It’s not good for him, Sara.”

“Okay.”

She stopped what she was doing and pulled the earpieces out of her ears.  She wrapped the instrument around her neck and looked at Josh.  She let out a small laugh and bit her lower lip.

“Well, they are only like us on the outside.  And even that’s superficial.  I can tell just by listening that their organs aren’t formed like ours.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, the rhythm of his heart is different for one.  And his respiration doesn’t sound right.  And I don’t just mean that it’s hard for him to breathe, but that he respires in a different way.  Man, I really wish…”

She trailed off as Naya hopped off the table and took the stethoscope from off her shoulders.  He examined the ear buds and carefully tried to stick them in his ears.  Sara continued.

“I wish I’d paid more attention in vertebrate biology.  Or that I’d also studied veterinary medicine…”

Naya made a face as the ear buds sunk into his ears.  He pulled the ends out and then gingerly hooked them to the outside of his ears so that they wouldn’t fall back down his ear canals.

“Do you think studying veterinary medicine would help you?” Josh asked.

“No, not necess…”

Naya put the other end of the stethoscope to Josh’s chest.

“…arily.  But it might help me have something to go on in terms of structure other than just ‘not human.’”

Josh nodded, but didn’t reply.  He watched the alien as it listened to his heart.  Whatever it was he was hearing, it was amusing the hell out of him.  His grin was still disconcerting, but it wasn’t quite as scary when he laughed.  His laugh was very recognizably a laugh.  There was nothing strange about it and it could not be confused for anything else.  He took the stethoscope off, still grinning, and said something to both of them and then laughed again.

“What the heck is that all about?” Josh asked.

Sara shrugged.  “Obviously our heartbeat sounds different to him too.”

“Yeah, but did you find his funny?”

“No.  A little disturbing.  It was very slow.  And I assume that he has a four chambered heart, that is the most efficient heart that’s evolved on our planet, and it sort of sounds like that, but there’s an extra beat or two in there.”

“So, either he has a five chambered heart or a murmur.”

“Hunh.  I suppose he could have a heart defect.  But, it didn’t really sound like that either.”

Sara turned her eyes to Naya and Josh didn’t like the look she was giving him.

“What the hell are you thinking now, Sara?”

“Think he’d let me feel his abdomen?”

“What?  No!”

“I mean to feel his other organs is all.”

“No.”

“Blood work?”

“ _No!_ ”

Naya started at his tone.

“Oh, come on,” Sara said.  “It couldn’t hurt to ask.  He can say no!”

She dashed off to the cabinets and Josh stared after her in shock.

“You can’t seriously be thinking about sticking a needle in some alien we just met less than half an hour ago!”

“Why not?  Is there a three date rule for blood work too?” Sara asked as she dumped an armload of supplies on the examining table.  Naya looked at them in mild interest.

“Sara.  You can’t—H-Hey!”

Before he could even figure out what she was doing, she had a rubber tourniquet tied around his upper arm.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?”

“I have to do everything to you first.”  She tore open an alcohol swab and the smell hit Josh like a worm to the stomach.

“Oh, Sara,” he said weakly, feeling nauseated from the smell alone.  “I have a little problem with needles.”

“You’ll be fine.”

Josh moaned softly and looked away.  He found Naya right beside him, watching Sara over his body.  He focused on Naya’s skin, his hair, anything but what Sara might be doing as she assembled the needle.

“Just a little pinch,” Sara said gently, “You probably won’t even feel it.”

“I bet I will.”

“I bet you won’t.”

“I bet I—”

“It’s already in, Josh.”

Josh looked at his arm and saw the needle sticking in his delicate little blue vein.  The blood collecting needles always looked worse because of the big piece of plastic attached to them.  Sara had already filled a purple top vacutainer with his precious life blood.  Why were doctors sadists?

Sara pulled the tube off the back of the needle and started to put another on.

“That’s enough,” Josh said sharply.  “It’s just a demonstration.”

“Josh, I was planning on collecting blood from everyone this week.  Might as well get it done now.”

He frowned at her and looked away as she filled at least four more tubes, some small, some big with yellow gunk in the bottom of the tube.  Josh kept his cool by watching Naya pick up the first tube of blood that Sara had filled from the rack on the table.  His eyes were huge as he tilted the blood from one end to the other.  He seemed mesmerized by the movement.

“All done!” Sara chirped as she snapped the tourniquet off.  She pulled the needle out… _while he was watching_.  Josh gritted his teeth.  Then she moved Josh’s free hand to hold the gauze in place over the puncture.  She was labeling the tubes of his blood and waited for Naya to finish looking at his tube.  He turned it right side up, and then popped the cap off.

“Ooo,” both Josh and Sara said, not sure what to do or if they should tell him blood was gross.  Surely he understood that bodily fluids weren’t to be handled like…

“Oh!” they half-winced, half-gasped together.

He’d just sniffed the contents.  Then he sniffed them again.  He smiled a little.

“I knew it!” Sara hissed.  “ _Vampire_.”

“Oh, give it a rest!”

“Well, stop him before he drinks it.”

“He’s not going to drink it.  I think.”

Though he did look sorely tempted to touch it.

“Take it back, Sara.”

Sara reached out for the tube.  Naya saw her and put the cap back on, and then surrendered it willingly.  Sara took the rack with all five tubes of blood to an incubator and popped them inside.

“I’ll deal with those later.  Now, let’s see if we can’t get him to cooperate on this.  Oh, here, Josh.”

Josh held out his arm and Sara taped the gauze in place with a Hello Kitty Band-Aid.

“Thanks,” he said dryly.

“You’re welcome.”

Sara smiled at Naya as she put on a fresh pair of gloves.  She nodded toward the examining table.  Naya looked at the remaining needle and tubes.  He slid his top teeth out and forward, resting his fangs very gently on his lower lip.  The equivalent of biting one’s lower lip?  Surely they couldn’t actually bite down with those things.  Unless they were blunt.  They could just be for show.  Naya looked at Sara, and then to Josh.  Josh shrugged his shoulders, trying to convey that it was completely up to him whether or not he wanted the crazy human to stab him.

Naya pulled his teeth back in and once again ran his finger down the middle of his suit.  Josh hadn’t noticed when it had closed—sealed?—back up again.  This time he removed the top portion of the suit, just like it was a jacket, the bottom peeling away from the rest of the suit around waist level.

“What the heck is that stuff?” Sara asked.

“I don’t know, but if we can get it from them we should patent it and retire.”

“For reals.”

The shirt he was wearing underneath still had that cotton jersey look to it, was formfitting, and sleeveless.  His arms were the same color as his face, which was to be expected, and also had patches of iridescence that moved as he did.  There were no other markings on his skin, and he left the gloves on his hands.  Sara patted the table again and Naya hopped back up.  She started to put the rubber tourniquet around his arm, but he pushed her hand gently away and shook his head.  Sara looked at Josh, confused.

“I thought he was going to let me do it.”

“I think he is, just don’t use the rubber band.”

“But, it’ll be faster and easier if he lets me—”

Sara reached for his arm again, and again he pushed her hand away, this time his ears starting to flatten out.

“Sara, seriously.  Surely you had friends who owned pets.  Just trust that he knows what is the best thing to do for his own body.”

“Okay, okay.”

Sara tore open another alcohol rub, the strong odor making the queasiness Josh felt earlier come back even though it wasn’t for him this time.  Naya just sniffed the air with interest.  Did the smell not bother him?  Was it not as strong?  Did he not associate it with hospitals and needles?

Sara held out her hand and Naya placed his arm tentatively in her grasp.  She rubbed the crook of his elbow with the alcohol swatch and then picked up the needle.  Josh inched closer to watch.  Sara started to probe his arm, and then her eyebrows knit together.  She continued to search his arm.  Then she put the needle down and searched with the middle and index fingers of both hands.  Josh leaned closer.

“Can’t find a vein?”

“No.  Geez.  I thought his skin was translucent.  It’s like opaque.”

Josh leaned down close and looked at Naya’s arm.  His skin shimmered in the lights as Sara touched it, but she was right, he couldn’t see through it.  He bent down really close and held his breath so he wouldn’t breathe on him.  He looked at the intricate network of miniscule scales.  They were mostly diamond shaped and layered horizontally across his body, running to the outside of his arm.  Josh got as close as he possibly could, trying to see what was on the scales that made them so soft, but either it was just the scales themselves or the hair or fur was so fine it was impossible to see with his eyes.

Sara and Josh looked up as they heard Naya laugh at them.  He moved Sara’s hand out of the way and pointed to a spot on his arm.  Josh stood up straight and took a couple steps back.  He needed to stop sticking his face in Naya’s personal space.

Sara sighed.  “I cannot see what he’s pointing at.”

“Well, get him to help you put the needle in.”

Sara picked up the needle and placed it gently on his skin near where he was pointing.  She looked up at Naya.  The alien made a face, but used his free hand to help guide the needle to where he wanted it to go.  Neither Sara nor Josh could see where he was aiming.  Maybe he could see through his own skin?

“I don’t see a flash,” Sara frowned.

Naya waved toward the tube and indicated for Sara to use it.  Sara shrugged and picked up a small purple top vacutainer.

“I guess I should just use a regular tube and get a whole blood sample.  Who knows if heparin wouldn’t cause his blood to go all wonky?”

“You think it’ll be really different?”

“Well, based on the way he looked at your blood, I’m guessing his doesn’t look like ours.”

“Wanna bet on the color?”

Sara looked at him and they both said together, “Blue.”

“Yeah,” Josh said, “not much of a bet, is it?”

“Well, I still don’t think we hit a vein yet, but here we go.”

Sara pushed the tube into place.  A clear, thin liquid suddenly gushed into the tube.  Sara started and almost dropped it.

“Careful,” Josh muttered, glancing at Naya’s face.  He didn’t seem too put out by his doctor’s shaky hands.

“This can’t be…water.”  Sara looked dumbfounded.

“Looks like water though, doesn’t it?” Josh commented.  “Good thing you didn’t have the tourniquet on his arm.  It might have blown out the needle.”

“Yeah.  Guess he was right.”

Once the tube was full, Sara pulled it off and didn’t know what to do.

“You think he clots?”

Josh shrugged.  “I assume something will stop him from bleeding.  Otherwise he wouldn’t have let us do it.”

“Well do we put pressure on it?  Is it like a vein?  Like I said, I didn’t see it go in anything.  Maybe he’s just a bag of fluids and he stuck the needle in randomly.”

Josh reached out a hand and felt Naya’s arm.  It was remarkably similar to a human arm in shape, warmth, and tone.  But the tactile feel was so different.  Josh found himself rubbing Naya’s arm, loving the soft sensation under his fingertips.

“Josh!  Seriously!  Stop molesting him and hand me that gauze!”

Josh jerked his hand away, not daring to look at Naya and see his reaction.  He walked over to the other side of Sara and handed her the gauze.  She slid the needle out and quickly covered the wound with the gauze.  Naya moved his hand to take over for her and bent his elbow, just like Josh had done.  He didn’t seem concerned that he was going to…leak to death.

Sara picked up the tube with Naya’s blood—fluid?—and tilted it back and forth like he had done with Josh’s blood.  It had no viscosity and was completely clear.  To Josh’s eyes it had just the slightest tinge of pink.  Then Sara shrugged and popped the top off the lid.  She put it to her nose and then jerked it back quickly.

“What?!  What?!” Josh cried.

She put it back to her nose again, not as close this time, and took a tentative sniff.  Then she got a strange smile on her face and held it out to Josh.  He took it from her and put it up to his nose, though learned from Sara’s reaction and didn’t put it right under it.  He didn’t even need to sniff.  One gentle inhale brought the familiar smell to his nostrils.  He looked at Sara.

“Is that…ammonia?”

Sara’s weird smile was still in place.  “Uh, yeah.  I think so.  Do you know what this means?”

Josh shook his head.

“I think he’s fixing nitrogen.”

“Fixing?”

“Breathing.  It’s what he breathes.  Not oxygen, but nitrogen.  This is truly amazing, Josh.  The only creatures on our planet that can do that are microorganisms.  It’s a very energy costly function that is too tasking for large, multi-cellular organisms.”

“Then why is he having trouble breathing our atmosphere?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Earth’s atmosphere is like, 60% nitrogen gas.”

“Oh.  Well, maybe that’s low for him.  Or…maybe the oxygen content is too high!  Nitrogen fixing is usually done anaerobically because oxygen can hinder the process.”

“Hmm.”

They both looked at Naya.  He was looking underneath the gauze and probing his arm with a finger.  Satisfied that the wound had healed sufficiently, he removed the gauze and looked up.  He seemed a little surprised to find Josh and Sara staring at him.  So, he smiled a little nervously.  Josh and Sara shook themselves and turned their eyes away.

“This is so awesome!” Sara cried.  “A completely different kind of life form!  It is so cool.”

Josh laughed at the little girl delight on Sara’s face.  Then all three of them started as the intercom in the room crackled.

“Sara and Josh.  Sara and Josh.  Please report to the conference room.  Immediately.”

Sara made an “uh-oh” face.  “Tim didn’t sound too happy.”

“When does Tim ever sound happy?  Come on.”

Sara dropped Naya’s blood off in the incubator and removed her gloves.

“You sure you don’t want to label that to make sure you know which is his and which is mine?”

Sara gave him a wry smile and then ran to peek in the room where Hannah lay.  She was still out cold.  Naya seemed to sense they were about to leave and put his jacket back on, the fabric sealing up into one seamless piece again.  Josh smiled and shook his head.

“Now _that_ is cool.”

Josh and Sara set a slow pace down the hallway, concerned about Naya’s respiration and not really looking forward to meeting up with the others.  Not that Josh wasn’t interested in more interaction with Ben, but he had a feeling the rest of the moon base crew were going to be a bigger challenge than the language barrier.  Well, that and he had been having fun examining Naya despite complaining to Sara about her invasiveness.  She was right after all.  If he didn’t want to do it, he could have said no.  Or nodded no anyway.  He must not have minded.  Though now Josh wondered if that meant one of them would have to volunteer to be a guinea pig for them.  It should be Sara.  She was the one who did all the prodding and stabbing.

When they entered the conference room, Josh’s fears were confirmed.  The humans were all bunched up on one side of the conference table and the alien was by himself on the other side looking…well, if Josh had to choose a word, stricken came to mind first.  Poor Ben.  Naya walked in exhibiting little of the same distress as his companion and he’d just been the one to undergo a medical exam.  What the heck had these guys done to Ben?

Naya started talking, getting Ben’s attention.  He was mostly laughing and using strange hand gestures as he spoke.  Ben’s face went from confusion to surprise to outright incredulity to annoyance tinged with anger and then finally a slightly bemused smile as Naya sat next to him and started lightly thumping his chest.  Naya laughed again and Ben shook his head.  He glanced over at the humans.  Then Naya reached out and shook Ben’s arm, saying something that soundly suspiciously like “Do it, do it.”  Ben looked at the humans, and then shook his head at Naya, looking a little embarrassed.

Now most of this was speculation on Josh’s part.  He had lectured himself on anthropomorphizing them, but he couldn’t help it now and read their faces and actions as he would interpret human body language.  He did feel confident in his last interpretation of Ben’s emotion being embarrassment: his face had gotten a little shimmery.

Naya let out a small huff of annoyance and turned to the humans with a huge grin.  Everyone except Sara and Josh gasped and pushed back in their seats.  Then Naya laughed some more, lightly hitting Ben’s shoulder with a closed fist.  Sanjay was the first to recover.

“What a little brat,” he murmured.

Josh laughed.  “Aw come on.  He just has a sense of humor.  Unlike everybody else as it seems.  What have you guys been doing this whole time?”

“Nothing,” Sanjay groaned.  “We can’t figure out what the hell that silver thing is and it’s not easy to communicate even simple things.  It took fifteen damn minutes to get him to understand we just wanted to go to a different room where we could all sit down and…talk I guess.”

“Well, do you blame him?  He’s outnumbered, alone because his partner took off, and he’s being stared down by a bunch of people who look ready to try to kill him if he does anything sneaky.”

“We are not looking at him like that,” Jim griped, once again drawing the attention of the aliens, their ears sitting forward.

“Uh, Jim have you seen your face?” Sara asked.  “You could lose the suspicious glare.”

Jim started to protest, and then made a visible effort to try to relax his features.  “Sorry.”

Josh and Sara pushed chairs over to the other side of the table feeling the need to make the aliens feel a little less isolated.  Josh looked at Jim and Alexei.  They were the computer engineers.

“So, did you guys look at the device?”

“Yes,” Alexei said, holding it in his hand.  “It’s a piece of metal.  With a tiny slit at one end.  It’s so tiny I can’t see inside it to tell if there are technical components inside or it’s just a piece of metal with a slit in it.”

He put it on the table and pushed it to the center.  Josh picked it up and looked at it.  It was about the size of a small wallet, but extremely thin—thinner than an iPod Pico.

“So, how is Hannah?” Tim asked.

“She’s fine,” Sara replied.  “She’s taking a little nap.”

“By choice or induced?”

“Little bit of both.”

Tim frowned.  “I told you I didn’t want her under while this was going on.”

“Do you really think she would be contributing anything other than tension to the situation?”

“That’s not the point.”

“What were you doing for so long?” Naoki asked.

“Well…” Sara stalled.  “I um, well I asked him if it would be okay if I could look at his ears and nose and well you know.  I mean, we were already in the med bay.”

“So…you probed him?” Sanjay asked.

Alexei and Evgeny snickered.  Xiaodan looked confused.

“Who gave you permission to do that?” Tim demanded.

“He did.”

“Sara.  This is not a time to just willy-nilly satisfy your curiosity.”

“When would be a good time?”

“After we figure out what it is they want.”

“What exactly does that mean?  Like, do they want to suck our blood?”

Josh repressed a laugh and decided continuing to stare at the metal object was not going to make it suddenly reveal its purpose.  So, he turned to Naya and held it out to him.

“We don’t know what to do with this.”  He shrugged, hoping that gesture would be universal.  It seemed so far like a lot of movements were.

Naya took the object back and fiddled with it for a second.  Then he turned to Ben and they spoke quietly for a minute.  Then Naya turned to Josh and held his hand out curled into a loose fist.  He moved his thumb back and forth a little bit.  Josh blinked at the gesture.

“What the hell is that supposed to be?” Josh asked the group.

He got no reply.  He tried to copy the alien’s gesture.  Naya nodded.  Josh shrugged again.  Naya’s eyes widened momentarily.  Josh got the impression Naya was starting think he was a little dumb.  Naya tried the action again and then turned his hand slightly to move his index finger instead.  Josh looked at the group.  They looked dumbfounded.  Josh shook his head at the alien.  Naya looked to Ben for help.  He pointed to the metal object and said something.  Naya picked up the object and slid his thumb across the flat surface.

“Oh,” Xiaodan said suddenly.  “I get the movement.  But…does he want a cell phone?”

“Is that all aliens really want?” Sanjay asked.  “To phone home?”

“But we don’t have cell phones up here,” Naoki said.  “We each have an iPad that is used the same way, but I fail to see how that will help him if he can’t read or write.  Maybe he wants pictures or something?”

Naya put the flat object in his other hand and this time used his index finger to slide across the top.

“Something to write with!” Evgeny said loudly, startling everybody.  He blushed and lowered his voice.  “Get it?” he said.  He copied the movement Naya had done in the air with his hand, and then changed the positioning of his hand to imitate a human hand holding a pencil and writing on the air—the universal, well, Earth-wide gesture for asking for something to write with.

“Ohhhh…” the group said together.

“Is there any paper in the podium, Tim?” Josh asked.

“I’ll check,” Jim said and stood up.

The aliens watched his movement.  Naya’s ears tilted back; not in an angry way, but in a nervous, fearful way.  Josh discreetly touched his wrist where it lay on the table, drawing the alien’s attention.  Josh gave him a small smile, trying to let him know that Jim was harmless.  Naya’s ears slowly sat back up, but then they started to go down again when Jim approached them and placed several sheets of paper and a ballpoint pen in front of them.  After Jim returned to his side of the table, the aliens looked a little less tense.  Then Naya looked at the objects in front of him.  He looked to Josh.  Josh pushed them closer to him.  Naya looked at Ben.  Ben shrugged and put a hand to his head.  It looked like he was regretting ever agreeing to be an astronaut.

“Is that not what they wanted?” Xiaodan asked.

Josh shrugged and sat back in his chair.  Naya pushed the paper close to Josh and pointed at it.  Then he turned his hand over and tapped the back of it against the paper.  Josh sat up and picked up the pen.  He thought for a moment and then wrote his name on the paper.  Naya laughed and pulled the sheet of paper back to look at the black ink on the white paper.  He held out his hand for the pen and Josh gave it to him.  Naya turned back to Ben and showed him the objects as he let out what could only be described as a disbelieving laugh.  Then he said something which got Ben to sit up straight and finally crack a real smile, showing that he too had the same monster canines as Naya.  Then they both laughed.

“Why do I get the feeling they’re laughing _at_ us?” Sanjay asked dryly as he put his elbow on the table and his hand on his chin.

“What’s wrong with paper and pen?” Evgeny asked.

“Well, remember the movement he made,” Xiaodan said, “he was asking for something with a touch screen.  Maybe pen and paper is just really…primitive.”

Sara giggled.  “How sad must we be to them?”

“There’s nothing sad about us,” Jim said darkly.  “I see no reason why they would mock us for using something that makes more sense than relying completely on electronic equipment which we all know doesn’t always work properly.”

Everyone looked at Jim, surprised by his tone.  Even the aliens looked at him.  Josh cleared his throat and tried to get Jim’s attention.

“Jim, I don’t think they’re mocking us.  They’re just experiencing a new culture.  They’re just seeing new things.  I mean, they probably wouldn’t be too thrilled to know that I’m biting back laughter every time they twitch their ears.”  Jim looked up and met his eyes.  “It’s okay, right?” he asked, trying to sound soothing but not patronizing.

Jim took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “I’m sorry everybody.  I just…I guess I’m more disturbed by this than I realized.”

Josh wondered if Jim’s extra hostility had anything to do with the fact that he was one of the more religious people on the crew.  He and Hannah were the only ones who seemed to make a point of making their religious beliefs known.  Of course the Asians and the Russians probably didn’t have much in the way of religious beliefs, and Sara and Tim had never said anything about what religion they might be let alone something as specific as a denomination.  Unlike Jim who was Methodist and Hannah who was Catholic.  Josh himself had been raised in a house that followed the traditions of the Baptist church and Jewish faith, but the religions themselves had never been that heavily emphasized.  For instance, Josh had been baptized and he’d had a bar mitzvah, but he didn’t go to church on Sunday or temple on Saturdays.

Josh looked back to the aliens.  They needed to take care of basics first before they started worrying about what the implications of their existence meant for the faith of the world at large.

Naya was attempting to write on the paper, but he was holding the pen awkwardly between his middle and index fingers and just trailing it across the paper lightly.  The tip was leaving a very light, squiggly trail of ink behind, but nothing that looked intentional.  Josh pushed on the top of the pen, adding more pressure and forcing the ink to come out.  Naya nodded and tried to push harder, succeeding somewhat, but his grip was hindering him.  Josh held out his hand and Naya gave him the pen.  He quickly demonstrated how to hold it against the middle finger by putting the index finger on top of the pen and adding the thumb to the other side.  He gave the pen back to Naya and it was several seconds before the alien managed to get a good enough grip on the pen in order to begin writing with it.

The first thing he did was draw a hand.  It was better than a second grader’s art, but it also took Josh just a second to figure out that it was a hand.  He didn’t know if this was because Naya couldn’t draw properly with the foreign tools or if like Josh he just sucked at drawing.  Then directly under the hand he drew a foot.  It looked like their feet were probably similar to human feet.  He drew only five toes, and no opposable thumb-toe or extra appendages.  Then he drew a mouth, followed by an eye.  An eye like theirs of course, large and with rectangular pupils, but it was still recognizable as an eye.  Then he drew an ear.  It mostly looked like a thin upside down ice cream cone, but Josh knew it for what it was.  Naya looked up at Josh, and then attempted to draw a small human ear next to the alien one.  It didn’t quite turn out.  Naya shrugged and then began to write something next to each picture.  He pushed the paper over to Josh.

Josh assumed the markings next to the pictures were the words in their language for these items.  Josh of course couldn’t even begin to guess at how to read them, and he wasn’t even sure if the language was based on pictographs like Chinese, a syllabic alphabet like Japanese, or one that consisted of individual letters that combined to make sounds and then words.  Some of the symbols were quite simple, and some more intricate.  The word for hand was short, and the same sequence of characters appeared in the longer word for foot.  There was what looked like one character for lips, but ear was long and drawn out.  Perhaps “lips” wasn’t a single character, but stacked characters the way Korean was written.  Not knowing what else to do, Josh started to write the words in English next to their respective pictures.

“Hey wait a second,” Alexei said.  “How come you’re writing it in English?  Why shouldn’t they learn Russian?”

“Well, Chinese makes more sense,” Xiaodan said.  “It is technically simpler.”

“Well, hell,” Sanjay said.  “Why don’t throw Sanskrit at them while we’re at it?”

“And maybe I could add some Hebrew,” Josh said.  “Come on guys.  English makes the most sense.  It is the most widely spoken language on Earth.”

“It’s also the most widely spoken language here,” Sara pointed out.

“Fine,” Alexei said like it was anything but.

Josh finished writing his words and then slid the paper back over to Naya.  He looked at the words, Ben leaning in close to take a look too.  Then Naya pointed to the picture, and then the English word.  He did this for all of the pictures, and then circled a finger around all of the pictures and words.  Josh scratched the spot just under his ear.  Then he turned to the group.

“Is anybody having any epiphanies about this one?”

Silence.  Naya tried the motion again.  Josh thought about it.  The words matched with pictures, yes.  And all of the words were together.  Somehow.  They were all body parts.  Was he asking what was the name of the sum of the body parts?  That they called themselves human?  That seemed like it wouldn’t be terribly useful.  He shook his head.  The rest of the group still looked just as baffled.  Naya picked up the pen and drew another picture.  He labeled this one and then handed the pen to Josh.  He looked at the picture and then showed it to the group.

“Anyone know what this is?”

“Looks like a trapezoid with a buzz haircut,” said Sanjay.

Josh looked back at the alien and shook his head.  Naya looked surprised and pointed to it again.  Josh shrugged his shoulders.  Ben leaned forward and said something to his companion, and then knocked on the table.  Naya drew a rough sketch of a table and then a chair.  He labeled those.  Josh did the same.  Then, once again Naya indicated all the pictures on the paper like they were a part of something.  This went on for about fifteen more minutes, Naya drawing and labeling everything he could in the room since items that were not present were not necessarily universal objects as was exhibited by the mysterious trapezoid that seemed to be a very simple and easily recognizable object to the aliens.  Soon everyone, including the aliens, were sitting back in their chairs and strumming fingers on the table or looking at their nails or even looking bored in Naoki and Alexei’s case.

“Maybe we should try something else,” Tim said, rubbing an eye.

“Like what?” Sanjay asked.  “Showing them a picture of a gun and asking if they have any?”

“Maybe,” Tim said.  “It wouldn’t hurt to know.”

“What else are we going to do?” Sara asked.  “This is impossible.  It will take weeks, maybe months to identify basic words and simple grammar.  Maybe we should ask Command to get a linguist to help us out.  I mean, at least with other languages we have some sort of reference to go on.  You know?  Like the Rosetta Stone.”

“Yes, but it wasn’t always like that,” Josh pointed out.  “When the Europeans landed on the Americas, there was no common language or interpreters.  They just had to learn each other’s languages.”

“And look how well that worked out.  They just slaughtered each other.”

“Well…”

Jim suddenly stood up, making everybody jump and Alexei come out of his partial sleep.  Then he abruptly left the room.  Everyone looked around at each other.

“So, does this mean we can go?” Alexei asked.  “Isn’t it, like, sleep time, doctor?”

Sara checked her watch.  “Well, yes, technically we should all begin our sleep cycles now.”

Since nights and days lasted approximately 28 Earth days on the moon, the crew was supposed to follow Central Standard Time, making it currently 11:00pm.

“It’s not that late,” Josh said.

“It is if we get up at 0600,” Tim said.

“Yeah, but that would be a normal schedule.  Don’t you think our regular schedule has changed a bit now?”

Jim returned to the room with a thick book in his hand and a broad grin.

“See?” Alexei said, hooking a finger in Jim’s direction.  “This is what happens when we don’t sleep.  We go crazy.”

“I’m not crazy,” Jim said.  “I just figured out what it wanted.  What is a collection of words with their meanings?”

Josh hit his forehead with his hand.  “A dictionary.”

Jim nodded and put the book on the table.  He slid Webster’s complete unabridged dictionary across the table to the aliens.  Naya put his hand on the cover, and then he tentatively peeked inside.  His eyes went wide as he looked at the list of words written in tiny font.  He made a softly pained expression as he closed the book.  He looked at Ben and patted the dictionary.  He said something and Ben’s jaw dropped.  He pulled the book closer and ran a thumb along the edges of the pages.  Then he and Naya laughed softly, and a little sadly.  Ben said something in a flat voice and picked up the thin, flat metal object they had been showing to the others.  He dropped it onto the book and let out a sigh that Naya mirrored.

“Now what’s wrong?” Tim asked.

“Maybe they were looking for something a little more technologically advanced,” Sanjay said.

“Sorry we’re so primitive,” Jim griped as he sat down.

“We’re not,” Josh almost sighed in his annoyance at his fellow humans.  “We have electronic dictionaries.”

“What, like, online?” Evgeny asked.

“I have an app on my iPad,” Josh said.  “I’ll see if they can figure out how to use it.  Possibly with their little device there.  I’ll go get it.  Be right back.”

“ _Right_ back this time,” Tim said.

Josh nodded and started to leave.  Naya got up to follow him.  Josh stopped and put out a hand to indicate that he should sit back down.

“I’ll be right back.”

Naya shook his head.

“Imprinted,” Sara whispered in a sing-song voice.

“Shush.”

Naya bent over next to Ben’s chair and picked up the metal cylinder.  He pointed to it and then out the door.

“Oh,” Josh said.  “He left his air canister in the med bay.  I’ll take him to get it.”

“Why do you think it’s an air canister?” Naoki asked.

“Because when we—Sara, you explain.  Oh, Hannah will still be out, right?”

“Should be.”

“Okay.  Well, you guys try not to freak Ben out again, okay?”

Sanjay started to stand up.  “Maybe I’ll—”

“Yeah, try to communicate something to him.”

Sanjay stopped moving.  “Communicate what?”

“Anything.  Maybe offer him some water or something.  Come on,” he said to Naya and left the room.

They walked in silence down the hallway.  Josh was listening for Naya’s footsteps, trying to discern how heavily he walked, but he didn’t hear anything.  Of course, his own feet weren’t making any sounds either.  He glanced over at Naya and the alien whipped his head forward, trying to hide that he’d been staring.  Then he glanced back over, saw Josh still looking at him, and laughed softly.  He started talking.  And talked all the way back to the med bay.  Josh hadn’t the slightest idea what he might be talking about, but he did enjoy listening to his voice and the strange patterns of his sing-song language.

When they entered the med bay, Josh peeked into Hannah’s room: she was still snoozing blissfully away.  He walked back into the room and Naya had retrieved his canister.  He looked at Josh thoughtfully and then set the cylinder on the examining table.  He ran a finger around the fabric at his wrist, separating the glove from the jacket, and then he slowly peeled it off.  Josh walked closer to get a look at his hand.  It was thin and a little bony, covered in the same iridescent skin, but there were points, diamond-shapes, of actual color running from the backs over the sides.  They were a pale green color, roughly the same hue as his eyes.  He had fingernails like a human: about the same relative size and shape, but they were shiny.  Not glittery, but polished like the surface of a car.  Josh didn’t think it was the result of vanity and a manicure, but perhaps that his nails were made out of something a little bit tougher than keratin.

Naya held out his hand palm up, and Josh hesitated only for a moment before placing his hand on the alien’s.  It was nearly half again as big.  Naya curled his fingers around Josh’s hand and then slowly slid the circle he had made down Josh’s hand and fingers.  Josh liked the soft feeling and wondered what his skin felt like to the alien.  Then Naya gripped his wrist and brought his arm close to his face to look at Josh’s skin.  He didn’t bring it as close to his eyes as Josh had had to do, and he wasn’t sure if that was because his visual acuity was better or he was just being polite.  The alien rubbed his skin, and then looked at his fingertips.  He rubbed a little harder and this time Josh thought he felt the tiniest of abrasions—like he was actually feeling the layering of the scales.  Naya checked his fingertips again.  What was he looking for?  Then he rubbed a hand along Josh’s arm, stopping to curl his fingers in the short hairs.  He pulled gently on them, and then rubbed the skin again.  He looked up and met Josh’s eyes, taking a step forward.  He reached up and put his hand to Josh’s cheek.  A human the same height as Naya probably would have had to stretch his arm out pretty far to reach him, but Naya’s arm seemed to be a bit longer.  He cupped Josh’s cheek the same way Josh had done to him.  Josh tried not to let his brain think about too much.  He didn’t want it to start thinking weird things because the velvet feeling of Naya’s hand was unbelievable.  And velvet wasn’t right; even the softest of velvets would feel coarse next to his skin.  Naya’s brow creased (which was a little strange since he had no eyebrows) and he curled his fingers a little in order to put the tips against Josh’s skin.  He scratched it lightly.  Josh raised his hand to his other cheek and felt the day’s worth of stubble that had grown in.  He laughed.

“What, do you guys not have facial hair?”

He once again noted the lack of eyebrows and thought that maybe they didn’t.

Josh smiled at him.  “Anything else you want to feel before we go?”

Naya, probably not intentionally ignoring him since he couldn’t understand him, didn’t respond, but took Josh’s hand again.  He brought it right up to his face, placing Josh’s knuckles under his nose.  He inhaled as deeply as he dared, and then breathed out through his mouth, his breath warming and tickling his fingers.  Josh took in a shallow breath and closed his eyes.  There was something wrong with him.  He’d watched one too many episodes of original series _Star Trek_.  He was not Captain Kirk and he could not have inappropriate reactions to beautiful aliens.  Especially ones that he was 85% certain were male.

Naya suddenly dropped Josh’s hand and put his own hand back in the glove.  He looked at Josh and then glanced away.  Well, at least Josh wasn’t the only one feeling awkward.  He wondered if Naya had a fiancée waiting for him back home—not knowing that the love of her life was skipping right over intellectual inquisitiveness to extra-species curiosity.  The truly sad part was that he couldn’t even figure out why he was drawn to the alien.  Or exactly what the feeling was that was drawing him in.  It wasn’t like he was attracted to him, exactly.  Or felt even the slightest sexual stirrings…well, when he’d felt his breath on his lips he’d jumped back so fast and so far in order to keep that a true statement.

Josh groaned and turned away.  What was wrong with him?  He didn’t look back at Naya but waved at him to follow as he walked out of the med bay.  He cracked his knuckles as he walked, trying to understand how he could be so desperate to get back to Earth and yet wanting nothing more than to learn more about something so foreign to it.  He started as Naya grabbed his hand.  He was staring at it as they kept walking.  Then he gave the hand a shake.  Josh waited.  Was his hand supposed to do something?  Naya bent his fingers, and then pushed them harder.

“Ow!”  Josh pulled his hand away and nursed it with the other one.  “What the hell, dude?”  He gave the alien a disapproving glare.

Naya imitated the movement Josh had done when cracking his knuckles, but no sound came from his joints.  Josh looked at his hand.

“Oh.  The cracking.  You can’t crack your knuckles?”

Josh tried to get them to crack again, but they were spent for now.  He bent one shoulder up and cracked his neck instead.  Naya jumped and let out a squawk.  Josh laughed.  They had arrived at the curve in the corridor where the laboratory hallway branched off, so he grabbed the edge of the wall and twisted his back.  There were two loud, satisfying pops.

“Ahh.  That was a good one.”

He looked at Naya.  He had his hands held slightly out to him with a horrified expression on his face.  Josh laughed.

“I’m fine.”  He wiggled his shoulders.  “See?”

Naya closed his eyes and made a disgusted face.  Then he turned and walked down the science lab hallway.  Josh whistled and Naya looked back.  Josh nodded his head to indicate the other corridor.  Naya walked back with a slightly miffed expression on his face.  Josh smiled at him.

“Can you guys whistle?”

Naya tilted his head slightly—clearly aware that he was being asked a snarky question.

Josh whistled again.  Naya blinked, startled.  Josh laughed again.

“Come on.  Just put your lips together.  And blow.”

Naya made a face at him and put the tip of his tongue to his top teeth, and then his lips formed a small “o.”  He whistled and it was purer and prettier than any human could whistle.  Josh nodded in acknowledged defeat.

“Alright, alright.  One all.”

Josh chuckled as he continued down the hall toward his personal quarters.  The alien followed beside him, fingering the face mask on his air canister.  He wondered if the whistling had winded him, but Naya didn’t pause to use it.  Josh passed by three rooms on his left and two on his right before stopping at a door that looked like all the others.  He and his fellow astronauts had been walking into each other’s bedrooms since they got here.  Even those assigned rooms at the end of the hall weren’t always guaranteed they were in the right place.  Due to the circular design of the base and the stark whiteness of the floor, walls, and ceilings, it was very easy to lose one’s bearings.  It was the reason they had already sent a request to Command to allow them to design a piece of software that would allow them to lock their doors.  Command had responded that they should just paint numbers on the doors.  But of course, even that required permission granted through a ridiculous number of channels.  So for now, he had to push a small button outside the door at knob height and hope that the room revealed was the one he intended.  He guessed right this time and his personalized room was revealed to him.  Each crew member had been allotted twenty pounds of personal items (not including books) and these were the only pieces of home and familiarity they would have for the next year.

Josh’s room, he was slightly embarrassed to admit, looked like a college dorm room.  It was decorated mostly with band posters and action figures.  Okay, so may a ten year old’s room.  He had a few pictures of his family on his desk and he looked at the one of Marissa in a bikini on St. Vincent.  She hadn’t been thrilled that he was taking that one to the moon (of all places) but in it she was showing off her newly acquired engagement ring.  She always made the story more romantic when she told it: that he had taken her to a secluded part of the beach and said the cheesiest profession of love ever uttered by man before going down on one knee and asking her to be his wife.  In reality, they had traipsed through the extremely tourist crowded beach, looking for a little piece of sand to squat on when he’d tripped, dropped their bag, and sent the contents flying.  As they were picking up their towels and suntan lotion and lunch, Marissa had found the tiny box and opened it.  He hadn’t actually been able to propose before she screamed and danced around and put the ring on.  Then of course he teased her that she’d jumped to conclusions and what if that hadn’t been his intentions at all.  And then she’d cried and hit him.  And he’d apologized for the next two hours until she finally forgave him and at last the picture of his happy fiancée with her brand new ring could be taken.

He smiled at the picture as he picked up his iPad 7.  He wished she could be here to experience this.  He had a feeling she would react like Sara and want to learn about them and not freak out like Hannah.  Josh turned at a soft clattering sound.  The alien was in his private bathroom.  He walked over to the tiny alcove and looked inside.  Naya had his hands behind his back and was looking a little guilty and embarrassed if the shimmer along his cheekbones was any indication.  In the sink was his toothbrush.  Out of all the things in his bathroom to explore why had he chosen the toothbrush?

Josh picked it up with a laugh.  “It’s okay,” he said.  “You didn’t hurt anything.”

Naya blinked big green eyes at him.

Josh sighed a little.  Communication was going to take forever, which was more disappointing than frustrating.  He was ready to sit down and discuss the Universe with him.  By the time they got to that point, Naya and Ben would probably already be headed for home.  Or been kidnapped by the military.  One or the other.

Josh held the toothbrush up to his teeth and gave a quick demonstration before putting it back in his blue drinking cup.  Naya’s face lit up and he nodded as he pointed to it and said something.  Then he pantomimed brushing his teeth too.  Josh laughed.

“You’re kidding.  Toothbrushes are universal.  Well, I guess you guys really need them, huh?”  He picked up the tooth brush again.  “Toothbrush,” he enunciated slowly.

“Toothhhbrussssh,” Naya said back to him.  He didn’t seem to like the double consonants sounds.

Josh nodded.  “Yeah.  Tooth.”  He pointed to his teeth.  “Brush.”  He picked up his hair brush and ran it through his hair.  Then he held the brush near his teeth.  “Tooth.  Brush.”  Then he picked up his toothbrush.  “Toothbrush.”

Naya blinked at him.  He looked at Josh’s teeth, the hair brush, and then the item that combined the two.  He sniggered and partially covered his face with a hand.  It was almost the look an adult gave a child who had done something clever for a child, but in actuality was kind of stupid.

Josh frowned.  “What do you use, lasers?” he mumbled.

Naya just laughed again.  Then he picked up the razor that rested on the shelf over the sink.

“Ah, careful,” Josh warned.  “It’s sharp.”

He didn’t take the razor from him but pointed to the blades.  He was kind of curious what would happen if the alien did nick himself.  Would he gush ammonia all over the floor?  And would his ammonia blood be a biohazard, or would it save him from having to clean his bathroom later that week?

Naya examined the blades and carefully pushed on them with his finger.  He seemed to understand that it was sharp and looked at Josh.  He shrugged a question at him.

“I use it to shave,” Josh replied, rubbing his fingers over his scruff.  The alien stared blankly.  Josh checked his watch.  They’d been gone five minutes already.  Would Tim kill him if they stayed gone a little bit longer?  Josh didn’t really care.  He opened the medicine cabinet, startling the alien who hadn’t realized the mirror was hiding the cabinet and got out his shaving lotion.  He had to be very careful when he dispensed it because the cans had been super pressurized in order to save space.  One small squirt was more than enough to shave with.  He wetted his face, gently squeezed the trigger, and both human and alien started in alarm at the large amount of white foam that came shooting out.  Josh put about half of it down the sink and the rest he applied to his face.  He could tell Naya was trying really hard not to show what a nutjob he thought the human was.  Then Josh began to shave.  He got half his face done and showed the alien.  He wasn’t sure if Naya could tell the difference, though he should.  Josh’s stubble was pretty dark and without it his skin should show through much more clearly.  He made quick work of the other side, knowing he’d missed a couple of spots, but he could shave again later.  He wiped his face off and put the razor up.  He turned to Naya.

“I guess that didn’t really explain much of anything, did it?”

Then he noticed Naya had removed his electrostatic glove again.  The green diamonds on his hand seemed to reflect differently in the white light of his bathroom bulbs than they had in the green fluorescents of the medical bay.  Naya reached up slowly, haltingly, as if waiting for Josh to stop him or pull away.  He stayed still, so Naya touched his cheek with his fingertips.  Then he let out a small laugh and splayed his palm out.  He asked a question, but Josh hadn’t the slightest idea what it might be about.  Plus, he loved the texture of Naya’s skin on his cheek.  They had to find out what it was so they could make blankets out of the stuff.  Then he had a flash of a blanket in the shape of a skinned alien.  He closed his eyes and laughed in mild horror.  That wasn’t a very nice thought.

“Josh!”

Josh and Naya started violently as Tim’s irate voice came over the PA system.

“Please return to the conference room.  Immediately.”

Naya rubbed one ear a little irritably.  Josh smiled sympathetically.  He could only imagine how bad it must have been for the sensitive ears of the alien considering it had nearly blown his own eardrums out.  Josh stepped out of the bathroom and picked up his iPad again.  He turned at the door to make sure Naya was following him.  He wasn’t.  He’d stopped at his desk and was looking at the pictures of his family.  Josh walked back over and watched his face as he carefully scrutinized the photos.  He picked up the one of Marissa.  Josh raised an eyebrow.  Unless he was mistaken, Naya was staring pretty intently at her breasts in the tiny bikini top.  Then Naya turned to look at Josh’s chest.  He turned back to the photo and squinted his eyes.  Then he started to scratch lightly at the glass right on top of her boobs.  Josh yanked the picture away.

“All right, perv, move along.”

He gave the alien an encouraging push out the door.  He put his hands in the air and started babbling about something.  Josh guided him more or less on a direct path back to the conference room.  He had to prod him a couple of times to keep him from stopping and examining the kitchen, the exercise room, and the hallway that led to the science labs.

Back in the conference room everybody was still sitting in the same places looking tense and unhappy at the long wait except for Sara who was trying to get Ben to talk, and Naoki who was asleep.

“What took you so long?” Tim asked in a low growl.

“He kept stopping to look at stuff.”  Josh didn’t feel too bad about blaming the alien since he couldn’t understand him.

“Did you shave?” Evgeny asked, a little perplexed.

Josh froze halfway in his seat and looked at the overly observant Russian.

“No,” he said with a warning look and then sat down.  “So, did you guys make any progress?”

“What do you think?” Alexei griped and covered a yawn.

Naya nudged Ben and started talking to him.  Then he pantomimed brushing his teeth, which probably only Josh realized what it was he was doing, and then laughed.  Ben made a strange face and shook his head.  Again, it was like one adult telling another about what his strange child had done.

Josh turned on his iPad.  He wondered if they were going to make fun of this primitive piece of technology too.  He selected his dictionary app and once it was pulled up on the screen, he slid it over to Naya.  He pointed to the dictionary in book form and then his iPad screen.  Naya smiled and nodded.  He picked up the iPad and examined the hardware rather than looking at the app.  He found the connecting ports and then showed them to Ben.  They examined the device for a couple of minutes, talking softly to each other.  Alexei and then Evgeny yawned, which made Josh yawn.  Sara covered her eyes.

“Stop!” she said.  And then yawned.

The aliens suddenly stood up.  Everyone in the room started, all now very wide awake.

“What are they doing?” Jim asked suspiciously.

Naya started talking rapidly.  Then he imitated a yawn (which was pretty ferocious with those teeth) and waved a hand at all of them.  Then he made some more arm movements.

“What’s going on?” Naoki asked sleepily, awakened by the sudden movements of everybody.

“I don’t know,” Alexei said, “but I’m going to sleep.  Wake me up if they figure out how to communicate with us or try to kill us.”

Naya pointed to the iPad that was still in his hand and then communicated pretty well that he and Ben were returning to their ship.

“Wait a minute,” Sanjay said.  “They flew a trillion light years just to steal Josh’s iPad?”

“I think they’ve realized we’re sleepy,” Josh said.  “They’re just going to go sleep on their ship.”

“With your iPad.”

Josh shrugged.  “I can’t figure out everything you guys.”

“You didn’t,” Evgeny pointed out.  “I realized they wanted an electronic way of writing.”

“And I figured out they wanted a dictionary,” Jim said.

“All right, geez.  We really should all go to sleep.  Everyone is cranky.”

“And we’re just going to…let them go?” Jim asked.

Everyone looked at him.

“What do you want us to do with them?” Sara asked.  “Throw them in the brig?”

“We have a brig?” Naoki asked sleepily.

“No, we don’t,” Tim said.  “And even if we did, we wouldn’t do that to them.  They will return to their ship.  And if they fly away and disappear and never return, well…at least we have a story to tell our grandkids.”

“Sure, that’s easy for you to say,” Josh muttered.  “You won’t have to explain a missing iPad to the property unit.”

Everyone laughed, somewhat breathily, and felt better for expelling the tension they’d been unaware that they’d been harboring.  The aliens glanced at each other.  Then Tim opened the door and gestured for their guests to depart first.  Ben seemed more than eager to get going.  Naya followed him slowly and glanced back at Josh.  Josh moved to walk with them to the docking bay.  The whole group followed behind.  As they walked, Naya reached out and took Josh’s wrist.  He turned it over to look at his watch.  He kept staring at it and Josh had to guide him a little so that they wouldn’t run into walls.  By the time they reached the docking bay, Naya seemed to have gleaned something important from his watch watching.

Naya got Josh’s attention and pointed to his watch.  He put the very tip of his finger on the 11.  The hour hand was halfway between eleven and twelve as it was 11:30pm.  Naya tapped his finger slowly on each number, going clockwise.  He passed the 11 and then stopped on the 1.  Naya tapped on the one and then waved a hand between himself and Ben before pointing a finger at the floor.  Josh nodded with a confident expression on his face.  No sense in stressing the aliens out even more.  He was pretty sure what he’d meant by that.  Unless, he hadn’t been counting the individual numbers as hours but as five minute increments.  They could be back in as little as an hour and ten minutes, but he doubted it.

“What was that all about?” Tim asked as the aliens picked up their helmets.

“He said they’re going to be back at 1300 hours tomorrow.”

“Oh, really.  Is that what he said?” Alexei asked with a slight smirk.

“Well.  It’s what he implied and I inferred.”  He gave the Russian a displeased look.  He just smiled back.

“Maybe he meant 1:00am,” Sara said, who had been watching Naya play with Josh’s watch.

“No, he went completely around the clock face.  So, I’m pretty sure he meant thirteen hours.”

“Well, that’s fine,” Tim said.  “We’ll need to sleep in after we stay up to write our reports for Command.”

The rest of the crew, even Jim, let out a groan of displeasure and annoyance.  The aliens looked at them, ears sitting straight up.  Tim frowned at them all.

“Well, it has to be done.  I’m surprised we haven’t been pinged with an emergency notification requesting us to fill them in on what’s happening already.”

“Maybe they think we wussed out and didn’t let them in,” said Naoki.

“Whatever the reason, everyone will be writing an account of their observations and chronicling it for future generations while it’s still fresh.”

“And say what?” Sanjay asked.  “Nothing happened.  Except they’re stealing Josh’s iPad.”

“He’s going to bring it back,” Josh said exasperatedly, though he glanced suspiciously at the small alien.

“And what about Hannah?” Sara asked.  “Does she have to write something?”

“Is she still in the med bay?” Tim asked.

“Should be.  What I gave her was enough to lull her into a natural sleep, so she probably won’t wake up until morning.  We should probably move her to her own bed though.”

“And let her wake up and think it was all a dream?” Evgeny asked.

“We’ll explain it to her before 1:00.”

Someone cleared their throat and it took a moment for the humans to realize it hadn’t been one of them.  They turned and saw the aliens waiting patiently.  Ben hooked a thumb over his shoulder toward the airlock.

“Oh, right,” Xiaodan said.  “We’ve got to depressurize it for them.”

“Well, since we can all more or less breathe the same air, why don’t we just pressurize the dressing room?” Alexei asked.

“I’m not sure what’ve they done to the other side of the door.  We’ll have to wait until we can examine it, but not tonight.”

Xiaodan walked over to the panel and began to do some techy engineer stuff.  Josh’s attention was drawn from the aliens as Sara put her arms over her head and stretched.  Her T-shirt pulled tight across her chest.  Alexei, Evgeny, and Sanjay noticed it too.  And so did Naya.  He let out a small cry and thrust his helmet into Ben’s hands.  Then he bounded across the room to Sara.  She dropped her arms in alarm and wasn’t sure if she should back up or slap the alien as he examined the lumps on her chest.  Naya looked at Josh, and then at a couple of the others in the room.  He pointed to her chest and asked Josh a question.  Alexei and Sanjay were trying hard to not laugh.

“What on earth is he asking?” Alexei sniggered.

“I have no clue,” Josh said, repressing his own laughter.

Sara frowned at him.  Naya pointed to Josh’s chest , and then Sara’s again,  and then re-asked his question.  Josh shrugged a shoulder.  Naya turned to Ben and said something.  He shrugged a shoulder and replied.  Naya shook his head and picked up Sara’s arm.  He gave it a little shake and pointed to the underside of her arm.  She was well toned being an astronaut and there was virtually no jiggle.  Then he partially turned her sideways and pointed to her stomach.  And then her breasts again.  She snatched her arm back and flicked him on the forehead.  Naya rubbed the spot and then spoke again to Ben.  He put a hand out and touched Josh’s chest.  He patted it a couple of times.  Then he reached for Sara.  She crossed her arms over her chest and backed up a couple of steps.

“Watch it, Starman,” she growled at him.

Naya turned to Ben and put out his arms like he’d made a great discovery.  Ben just shrugged and shook his head again.  Naya let out an irritated sigh and his eyes went sideways.  Josh was close enough to see the eyeballs distinctly and deliberately move in the sockets toward the outside of his head.  As far as he knew, humans could cross their eyes inward, but not shunt both out to opposite sides.  It was creepy as hell.  And it seemed like Naya had done it in annoyance.  The equivalent of rolling one’s eyes?  But he was pretty sure he’d seen Ben do that as well.  Perhaps sideways rolling was a whole other level of irritation for them.

“All right,” said Tim, “How about before we have anymore sexual harassment, we let them go back to their own ship?”

“Why were you leaning away?” Alexei asked.  “You could be the first human in history to be fondled by an alien.”

“Not if you believe all the UFO abduction stories,” said Evgeny.

“I don’t,” Alexei shot back.

They glared at each other.

Tim looked like he was about to reprimand them, but then changed his mind.  He approached the aliens.

“Um.  Thank you for visiting us?  I guess we’ll see you tomorrow?  And, um, please bring that—” he pointed to the iPad in Ben’s hands, “back.”

Ben looked at the item and then nodded.  He put his helmet on and once again became a faceless humanoid shape.  Naya waved to them and put his helmet on.  They stepped into the airlock and Xiaodan depressurized it, allowing the visitors to enter the dressing room and cross back to their ship.

Everyone was silent for a moment.

“Well, that was underwhelming,” Naoki commented.

“It wasn’t at all,” Josh said.  “It was incredible.”

“Well, you’re the only one of us who got a new alien girlfriend,” Alexei commented wryly.

“I did not.  And shut it.  He’s just like me.  We’re just curious.”

“Oh.  You think Naya is a he?”

“You don’t?” Sara asked.

Alexei shrugged.  “She’s kind of pretty for a dude.”

“So are you,” Sanjay pointed out.

“What did you think?” Josh asked Sanjay.

“I’m not sure.  I really got the impression that Ben is male.  But…Naya was a little ambiguous.”

“I thought they were both male,” said Naoki.

“Why?  Because only males would be allowed to explore the universe?” Sara asked.  Then she gave him a wink to let him know she was teasing him.  “I kind of hate to burst everyone’s bubbles here, but I’m not sure they are male or female.  At least not in the way we would understand it.  Their physiology is so completely different from ours that their genders may be defined in different ways.  They may even have more than two genders.”

“Or maybe only one,” Josh said.

Sara nodded.  “Exactly.  I think Naya was trying to figure out what the difference between me and the rest of you guys is.”

“Wait, why do you think you know _anything_ about their physiology?” Tim asked.

“Oh.”  Sara went a little pink in the cheeks.  “I may have.  Done a little more than just look at his ears and eyes.  Just a little.”

Everyone looked at her, and then the younger crew members (and Naoki) started coughing to hide their laugher.  Tim put a hand on his waist.

“Are you joking?”

“No.  But it was just a little, tiny bit.  And Josh was there.  Nothing happened.  But oh!  We think they’re fixing nitrogen and not really breathing air at all!  It’s very cool.”

“They’re going to kill us in our sleep,” Jim muttered.

“No.  He was fine with it.”

“All right, enough already,” Tim threw his hands in the air and gave his crew members a look that got them to settle down pretty quickly.  “Everyone, write your reports.  I want them in half an hour.  We’ll contact Command, fill them in, and then we’re going to sleep.”

“Who’s going to be able to sleep tonight with them right there?” Jim asked.  “They can come back at anytime.”

“No they can’t,” Xiaodan said.  “We have to allow them through the airlock.”

“I’m pretty sure they could blast their way in if they wanted.”

“Why would they?  We’re being cooperative,” Josh said.

“Some more than others,” Alexei said.

Josh cuffed him on the back of his head as he passed.  Tim waved his arms to shoo them all out of the docking bay.  Josh glanced back over his shoulder at the dressing room.  He wondered what _they_ were doing right now.


	3. Interlude~You May Not Have Sex with the Aliens

Naya and Ben popped off their helmets and inhaled deeply, bringing their own atmosphere into their lungs.

“Oh, that’s nice,” Naya said.  “I wonder if they really need that much oxygen.  Maybe we can ask them to turn it down a bit.”

Ben groaned and collapsed on a bench.  “Yeah, and how exactly are we going to communicate that with them?”

“With this,” Naya replied, taking the flat alien computer from his partner’s hands.  “I’m sure the Program will be able to figure out how to interface with it.”

“Let’s hope so.  Or that is going to be a lot of money down the drain.  The government will totally kill the space program if we come back and say, ‘Oh yeah, we met aliens, but have zero chance of communicating with them.’  That’ll go over real well.”

“Oh, come on, it would only be that we can’t communicate with them quickly if the Program can’t do it.  We could figure out a way to talk eventually.  For example, today I learned the word for toothbrush.”

Ben cracked a smile.  “Literally a ‘tooth’ ‘brush.’  What a bunch of nutjobs.”

“Ha, I know, right?  But I like them.  Especially Josh and Sara.  They don’t seem as afraid.  And I’m telling you…I don’t think Sara is like the others.  I think he might be a different gender.”

“How could you tell?  They all look the same.”

“Well, those lumps on his chest.  I don’t think they’re synthetic or fashionable.”

“He could just be fat,” Ben repeated his earlier hypothesis.

Naya shook his head.  “No way.  You saw his arms and the rest of his body.  Why would he only be fat there?  Plus I saw a picture in Josh’s room of another alien, wearing very little clothes, and that one had lumps that looks liked they were a part of its body.”

Ben shrugged.  “Maybe some have big ones and some have small ones.”

“But I saw Josh without his shirt on.  It wasn’t the same.  And he’s got some weird birthmarks.  Plus, did you see how when I put a hand on his chest he didn’t really care, but Sara wouldn’t let me touch his?  I think Sara is not the same.  Either she’s a girl and the others are boys, or they’re girls and he’s a boy.”

“Maybe all the pale ones are one gender then.  And the dark skinned ones are the other.”

“Hmm.  Could be.  But it’s a pretty wide range amongst the darker ones.  And some of the lighter ones looked kind of dark and light.  But I liked Josh’s color.  It reminded me of Zaveeya.”

Ben smirked at him.  “You’re so weird.  You always did like brown better than grey.”

“So?” he retorted.  “Excuse me for not liking my female’s skin so grey they look like eggs.”

Ben put his hands in the air.  “Alright, relax.  But I would take an egg-colored female any day over any of them.  I mean, what is _with_ their skin?  It’s creepy.  It’s _hairy_.”

“It actually feels pretty nice.”

“Why do you know that?”

“I felt it.”

Ben gave him a look.  “What exactly did you and those two do when you left?”

“Well…I’m pretty sure Sara is a doctor of some kind.  He kind of…gave me an exam.”

Ben stood up and crossed his arms as he looked his partner.  “What kind of exam?”

“Nothing serious.  Just, like he looked in my ears and my eyes and up my nose.  But I made him do everything to Josh first.”

“Mm-hm.”

“It’s was nothing major.  That’s how I heard their heartbeat.  I’m serious, you have to hear it.  It sounds exactly like a hatchling about to break through.”

“And was that all?”

Naya made a small face.

Ben put a hand to his forehead.  “Eggs and nests,” he swore.  “What did you do?”

“I may have…given them a blood sample.”

Ben put his arms out to the side and shook his head.  “You did _what_?!”

“What?  It’s just a little blood.  And Josh did it first.  You will _not_ believe it.  Their blood is red.  Like.  _Red_.  And really thick.  And it smells good.”

“It smells good?” Ben asked, having to laugh because getting angry or crying just wouldn’t help when it came to Naya.

“Yeah, like copper and iron.  I wanted to taste it, but I think that would have weirded them out.”

“Oh, you think?”

“And I don’t think our blood smells quite as nice to them.  They wrinkled their noses and kept it held away from them.  But, they kind of smiled like it was familiar to them.”

Ben stretched his arms over his head.  “Well.  Now they’re probably developing a biological agent to use as a weapon against our whole race with that.”

“Are you joking?  With their primitive technology?  And besides.  They’re nice.  And they can break their bones and not worry about it!”

“What?”

“Yeah, when I was with Josh the second time, he broke all his fingers and then his back.  It was so gross, but he just shrugged it off.”

Ben stared at him like he was crazy.  Which was not an unusual expression to have sent in his direction, Naya mused.

“Are you sure they broke?  Maybe they don’t really have bones and it can bend or something.”

“I don’t know,” Naya said.  “All I know is that it was super gross.”

“All right, whatever.  Well, seeing as how they were yawning, it must be their sleep cycle.  So, we should nest soon so that we can get on their schedule.”

“Why shouldn’t they get on ours?  I mean, there are no days or nights on this satellite.”

“Just.  Write your report and go nest.”

Naya groaned in displeasure and annoyance.  “Seriously?” he whined.

“Yes.”  Ben smiled.  “And now I think I understand what Jin must have said to the others.  He must be the Commander.”

“The big, dark scary one?”

“No, that’s Jeem, I think.  I meant Jin.”

“You mean Tim.”

“Is that what they were saying?  Their consonants are confusing.”

“I know, right?”

Ben laughed softly.  He interlaced his fingers with Naya’s in the “goodnight” pattern, and then patted his shoulder.  “Go write your report.  And try not to gush too much about Josh.”

“Oh, shut-up!  Just because you got stuck with the duds doesn’t mean he isn’t something special.”

“Special, huh?”

Naya smiled softly thinking of his new friend.  “He—or she—is like me.  I can sense it.”

“Naya.”  Naya looked at his partner.  “I didn’t think I would ever have to say this to you, but since I am I hope I only have to say it once.”

“What?” Naya frowned at him.

Ben took him by the shoulders.  “You may not have sex with the aliens.”

“ _Whaaa_??” Naya squawked, causing Ben to let go of him and cover his ears, as well as hurting his own ears with the sound.  “Shut-up, you _perv_!”


	4. The Tour

Jim was right, but for the wrong reasons.  Josh couldn’t sleep.  He was anxious to see Ben and Naya again and really get down to trying to communicate.  Or maybe getting invited over to their ship.  Josh was dying to see the inside of it.  But he really should get some sleep first.  He’d had to stay up later than everyone else since his report took longer to write.  He had to describe in painstaking detail everything he’d already told Command twice about the initial event and the wormhole.  And Command had kept them all up for two hours asking questions and demanding to know what the aliens wanted, where they came from, etc., etc.  It took a while to explain to Command that there was no such Sci-Fi thing as an instant translator.  They didn’t know anymore about who and what the aliens were than they had already reported.  Finally, they were told they had permission to continue interacting with the aliens until some form of communication could be established.  But they were to try by any means necessary to tell them that they had to stay on the moon.  No one was ready to have them come to Earth yet.  They were trying to work out if it would be at all possible to send political representatives up in a shuttle, but the crew had firmly asked that they hold off on that.  As far as they knew, there were only two aliens and they were already quite outnumbered.  They didn’t want to scare them into leaving.

That rational part of the conversation occurred after they had managed to convince them they weren’t under alien mind control because they were trying to cover up for why Hannah wasn’t present.  Sara and Jim had had to go collect Hannah from the med bay so that they could show she really was fine, just doped up.  At last, just past two in the morning, they had been released to go to bed with strict orders to contact them within an hour of the 1300 hours rendezvous time.  And then Josh still had to spend another hour on his report.  He could have spent longer, but he didn’t bother to work out any of the math that he’d hinted at; Hunter would probably want something to do.

He was extremely grateful when at last he was finished and could shower and re-shave the other half of his face.  But then he couldn’t get to sleep.  He’d set his alarm for 10:00am, just in case he did manage to drift off, but at six, he was still awake.  He sighed as he watched the clock turn from 6:04 to 6:05.  Then the next thing he knew, he was starting awake to the sound of his alarm.  He reached over and turned it off.  The soft, blue-temperature light that was turned on the same time the alarm went off (to simulate sunrise) gave him enough light to see that he’d fallen asleep with one leg hanging off the side of the bed.  He gently tried to move it and his fears were confirmed when he barely managed to get the leg moving and the dead limb tingled from foot to knee.  It was going to start hurting in a minute.  He sat up and started to rub.  Then it started to hurt as life came back to it.

“Ow,” he whimpered softly to himself.  He checked the clock.  It was a couple minutes after ten.  The aliens should return in less than three hours.  That was plenty of time to get dressed, have breakfast, and then wait anxiously by the door for two and a half hours.  Or he could go back to sleep.  Josh turned off the light, set the alarm for 11:00, and was out in a matter of seconds.

 

“Where’s Josh?”Sara asked as she poured the rice milk over her Cheerios.  She was already missing real milk, but NASA had opted not to spend the extra money on the super pasteurization process that would allow them to store it at room temperature.

“I guess he’s still asleep,” Sanjay replied with a yawn.  “God, I am so tired.  I didn’t sleep at all.”

“Me neither,” Evgeny and Xiaodan replied.

“I slept fine,” Alexei said.

“That’s because you have no sense of wonder,” Naoki teased him with a pat on his head.

“Like you’re one to talk,” Sanjay said.  “You were underwhelmed by everything last night.”

“Not really.  I think I was just sleepy.”

“I don’t know how you managed to fall asleep at that conference table,” Jim’s voice rumbled from behind them as he dug in the pantry for his oatmeal.  “I was on edge the whole time.”

“Because you’re hostile,” Alexei said.

“I am not,” he growled menacingly.

“Right, right.”

“Well, honestly, I’m glad I was unconscious for all of it,” Hannah said, gingerly touching her bruised nose.  “I can’t believe you invited them in.”

“They’re really nice!” Sara defended either the aliens or their decision.  “There’s nothing to be scared of.  I really don’t think they have any ulterior or nefarious motives.”

“Famous last words,” Hannah mumbled.

“There he is!” Sanjay called out as Josh shuffled into the kitchen, sleepily rubbing his eyes.

“We thought you were going to sleep right through the second encounter,” Sara said with a smile.

“What time is it?” Josh grunted as he plopped onto a bench and accepted the glass of Tang Evgeny poured for him.

“Um, it’s 12:30.  We were going to go wait in the docking bay soon.”

Josh took a sip of the orange stuff and made a face.  “God.  When are the plants in hydroponics going to start producing real fruit?”

“It’s going to be a while, sweetie.”

Josh grunted again and peeled open a packet that contained a flattened bran muffin that had the flavor preserved right out of it.

“So, what are we going to do today?” Alexei asked.  “Another rousing game of intergalactic charades?”

“Do you think Tim is going to make us do our chores?” Xiaodan asked.

“Shhh!” everyone else shushed him and glanced at the door to make sure Tim wasn’t there.

“Sorry,” Xiaodan said softly.

“Just, never bring them up,” Sanjay advised.  “Maybe he’ll forget too.”

“Well, some we can’t ignore.  The machinery has to be monitored.  And if you want real fruit, someone has to check on the plants.”

“I already did that this morning,” Sara said.  “They’re doing well.  I also did a few tests on Naya’s blood.”

“What’d you find out?” Josh asked, much more awake.

“You took his blood?” Alexei asked with a slightly horrified laugh.  “I don’t think they’re coming back.  I think they just told us they were so they could run away from the crazy humans.”

“Nah.  The ship is still there.  I checked when I got up,” said Jim.

“Of course you did.”

“He gave me his permission,” Sara said.  “Anyway, what we observed yesterday is that it is clear and not viscous at all, like water.  But with a slight pink tinge.”

“And it smells like ammonia,” said Josh.

“Ammonia?” Hannah asked, curious despite herself.

“Yes,” Sara said.  “Well, ammonium hydroxide to be specific.  Ammonia is a gas at room temperature.  But the smell is why I thought they are fixing nitrogen.  A byproduct of the process is ammonia gas.  The liquid form, with water, is ammonium hydroxide, like what you would find in a household cleaner.”

“So, they have Lysol for blood?” Sanjay asked.

“No,” she laughed.  “It’s not really ammonium hydroxide.  I ran it in the gas spectrometer, and it is dissolved in water.  So, at least we have that in common.  Water apparently is essential for life.  But the ammonia has an unknown organic group on it.  Or, I’m assuming it’s organic.  The machine couldn’t recognize it.  Plus, there’s also a lot metals dissolved in it.”

“Metals?” Xiaodan asked.  “Like elemental metals?”

“Yeah.  It’s pretty interesting.”

“What time did you get up to do this?” Josh asked.

“Oh, I did it while I was writing my report last night.”

Josh looked at her.  “Did you…put it in the report?”

She shook her head.  “I didn’t think I should.”

“Why not?” Jim asked.  “Command should know everything we know.”

“Well, he never gave me permission to share it with anybody.”

“But he had to know you might,” Hannah said.

“He may have been a little loopy from wormhole-lag,” Josh commented mildly.

“Even still.  They should know what he is.  In case…”

“In case what, Hannah?”

“In case we need to defend ourselves,” Hannah said.

“Yeah, and if we let people like you and Jim decide what the threshold for needing a defense is, we’d be on the offensive,” Xiaodan said.

Everyone looked at him.  He was turning out to be pretty feisty.

“I’m not saying we should attack them,” Jim said.

“No, just that we should know how to kill them.”

Jim shrugged a shoulder and took a sip of his coffee.

“Well, I don’t think that would be hard,” Sara said.  “We’d just have to put them in a room and pump in the oxygen.  They’d probably suffocate in an hour or so.”

“Don’t help,” Josh said.

“Sorry.  Well, I’m going to go brush my teeth.  And put on a jacket.  Hannah, you may not want to wear a tank top.”

The others laughed and Hannah looked unhappily confused.

“Why not?” she groused.

Josh rinsed the rest of his cardboard down with neon orange flavored drink, and then threw the trash in the compactor.  He patted Xiaodan on the shoulder.

“You’ve got dishes this month, right?”

He left his cup in front of him and the Chinese scowled at him.  He left the kitchen and the Russians were hot on his heels.  He glanced over his shoulder at them.

“Can I help you gentlemen?”

“Well, I’m sure Evgeny is following you because he’s obsessed with you and wants to have your babies—ow!”  Alexei rubbed his arm where he’d been punched.  “But I wanted to talk some more about the aliens.”

“About what in particular?”

“Well, you spent the most of amount of time with them.”

“You spent the same amount of time with Ben,” Josh pointed out.

“True.  But he was little more responsive than Hannah was after she hit the floor.  I’m just curious to know if Naya would be open to—exchanging things.”

Josh stopped and turned to look at him.  “What do you mean by that exactly?”

“I mean he took your iPad.  Do you think he would give us one of his gadgets to play with?  Reverse engineering is one of my favorite things to do.”

Josh laughed.  “Oh.  Got it.  You had me worried for a second there.  But I forgot, you are kind of a geek.”

Alexei tsked at him.  “Look who’s talking, Math Boy.”

Josh turned and started walking for his room again, still chuckling.

“And what did you think I meant?” Alexei asked.

“Probably something weird because you’re a…”

Evgeny called him something in Russian.  Evgeny sucked in a breath when Alexei punched him in the arm.  Josh couldn’t decide if they were like antagonistic brothers who still liked each other, or like feuding stepbrothers who actually did hate each other.  Rather than squabbling as they walked, they strode side by side in cold indifference.  It was probably actual hate.

Josh paused at what he thought was his door.  “Um, I’m going to brush my teeth and grab some paper and pencil and then head to the docking bay.  So, unless you guys want to watch…”

“Oh, right.”  They separated and went into their own rooms.  Then Evgeny popped back out shouting, “Sorry, Sara!”  He looked around at the other doors and then tried another.  Josh hesitated at his door.  If that one Evgeny had gone in was Sara’s, then…yes, he was right.  This was his.

 

The entire ten person crew was once again assembled in the docking bay, with Hannah straggling in at 12:55 in a long-sleeved T-shirt.  The tension was much less than it had been the previous evening, but there was a hum of excited energy about most of them.  Except for Jim and Hannah who still had nervous stress in the lines of their bodies.

“You’re not going to faint again, are you?” Alexei asked.

Hannah snarled at him.  “I might.  What’s it to you?”

“Leave it alone, Zharov,” Tim ordered.

Alexei smiled and looked away from her.

“Oh, they’re here,” Xiaodan said, who had been waiting closest to the airlock.  He looked at Tim.  “Should I let them in?”

Tim nodded.  “No sense in keeping them waiting.”

Xiaodan began to activate the airlock and Hannah closed her eyes and hummed in mild fear.  Sara rubbed her back.

“It’s okay.  They are really nice.  Do you need to sit down?  Are you light headed?”

She shook her head and swallowed.  “No, I’m okay, thank you.”

When they stepped through into the docking bay, they were wearing the same blue suits and red helmets.  They both carried their air canisters again and Naya had Josh’s iPad (in what appeared to be one piece) in his hand.  When they removed their helmets Josh heard someone take in a sharp breath.  Probably Hannah.  Naya’s corn silk hair was pulled back and twisted around in a rubber band so that it didn’t hang down in the short ponytail like yesterday.  Ben looked the same, though his skin was whiter today.  It was harder to tell he was blue.  Naya looked just as white, except when he moved through the light, his iridescence had a decidedly green tint.

The aliens and the humans stood across from each other, staring for a few moments.  And then Josh remembered he’d been elected spokesperson, so he stepped forward with a little wave and said, “Hi.”

Naya waved back, and then looked at the iPad.  He flicked the switch on the top (obviously he had figured out how to turn it off and on) and then he moved his finger over the screen.  He held it up to the group.  Josh wasn’t sure what program he was running, but the whole screen was taken up by the word, “Hello.”

Josh laughed.  “Oh, my God, they figured out how to use it.”

“Seriously?  That fast?” Alexei asked, sounding very impressed.

“Well, I don’t think he randomly pulled out a word and got lucky.  He had a greeting prepared for us.”

Naya pointed at the word and moved his hand like a speaking mouth.

“Hello,” Josh pronounced it for him.

Naya shook his head slightly.

“Hel-lo,” he said slowly.

“Hel-lo,” Naya repeated.  He looked at the word on the screen and then shrugged.  He used the touch screen again and then showed it to them.  There were more words.  Josh walked over to him and took the iPad from him.  The words on the screen read:

NEED

grammar parts

and

way of pronunciation

Josh stared in amazement.  How had they figured out what any words meant, especially something abstract like the words “of” and “and?”  “And” was a simple word that people took for granted, but try to define it or explain it to someone and you had to use concepts only.  There was no physical representation for the word “and.”  And definitely not for “of.”

“What does it say?” Sara asked.

“They want to know our grammar rules and how to pronounce the language.”

“It says that?” Sanjay asked skeptically.

“Well, more or less.  I figure if they learn the grammar, they could ask it better.”

“But, they knew the word ‘grammar?’”

“Yes.  More impressively they knew ‘of.’”

“So, what, they want a grammar book?” Jim asked.

“Well, probably an electronic version,” Evgeny said.

“How could they possibly figure out what our words meant with no point of reference in just thirteen hours?” Alexei practically cried out.  He approached Naya and pointed to the words on the iPad.  “How did you know?” he asked him, and pointed to his head.

Naya cocked his head, trying to figure out what he was saying.  Alexei took the iPad from him, saw he was using a word processor, and then typed in the question.  He showed it to Naya, but the alien shook his head and waved a hand.  He couldn’t read the question.

“I don’t get it,” Alexei said.  “How do they know these words?”

“Maybe they specifically looked up these words and no others,” Josh suggested.

“But if they know no other words, how do they know what grammar means?”

Josh opened his mouth and then closed it.  He looked at the aliens.  “I have no idea,” he murmured.

Josh scrolled back up to the aliens’ request and pointed to it.  The he shrugged his shoulders in question and pointed at Naya’s head.  Naya half smiled and put out a hand.  He started talking and gesturing.  When he stopped he looked at Josh with a look that said, “Did you really get any of that?”  Josh looked back at the group.

“Yeah, I don’t know what any of that meant.”

“Well, doesn’t that iPad have grammar in it somewhere?” Sara asked.

“I don’t think in the way they need it.  I think they need an actual book of grammar that explains syntax and the rules.  We could ask Command if they will upload a grammar app to us.  As well as one for pronunciation.  I know the dictionary has the linguistic pronunciations, but they probably want the actual sounds in audio.”

“And what are they going to do with it once they have it?” Evgeny asked.  “Even if they have a computer program that can sort it out, they can’t possibly learn it that fast.”

“Maybe they’re building a translation program.  They would type it in their language and it would come out in English.  Then we could communicate.”

“Then why do they need pronunciation?”

“For completeness’ sake?  I don’t know, Evgeny.”

“Okay, okay.”

“Well, it is early,” said Tim, “but I’ll go ahead and contact Command now to report the interaction and make a request for a program that has grammar and pronunciation in it.  Get the ball rolling.”

“So…then what are we going to do until Command sends us the upload?  Send them back?” Alexei asked.

“I see no reason why they can’t stay here,” Sara said.  “At the very least we know we can offer them water without accidentally killing them.”

“Why do we know that?” Tim asked.

“They have water in their blood.”

Tim shook his head.  “I’m still not okay with you experimenting on them.  That is not a valid activity for now, okay?”

“But…what if they agree to it?”

“No.  Because then we’ll have to agree to do it for them.  And who will volunteer for that?”

Sara shrugged.  “Josh.”

“Hey,” he said.  “I already volunteered for you.  Why don’t you volunteer yourself?”

“Because I’m a scientist.  I do the experiments.  I don’t become them.”

“We’re _all_ scientists,” Xiaodan pointed out.

“And a lot of scientists who were pioneers in their fields had to experiment on themselves,” Evgeny reminded her.

“Okay.  But if they do something that causes one of us to start to die, it would be best if it wasn’t the doctor.”

“Why would they do that?” Hannah squeaked.

“They wouldn’t—” Sara groaned.  “Never mind.”

Tim crossed over to Naya, but looked at his crew.  “That’s why I say no experimenting on anybody by either side, okay?”  He faced the alien and held out a hand for the iPad.

Naya looked at Josh.  Tim laughed softly.

“Apparently they think you’re the leader.”

“I wonder why,” Josh said lightly.

Then he pointed at the words grammar and pronunciation on the screen.  Then he pointed to the side of the iPad, hoping that would convey putting something into it.  Naya nodded in understanding and handed the device to Tim.  Then he tapped his wrist and Josh scratched his ear in uncertainty.  Naya reached out and tapped the watch on Josh’s wrist.

“Oh.”  Josh laughed and bopped the side of his head.  “It’s an Earth-wide gesture and I didn’t get it.  Um…”  He looked at Tim.  “How long do you think it will take?”

“Who knows?  It may take an hour to explain why they want it and how they asked for it.  But, I should think they would be able to get it together in a couple of hours or so.”

Josh turned back to Naya and showed him his watch.  He tapped on the two and then the three like Naya had done the previous night.  Then he shrugged.  Naya nodded and shrugged back.

“All right then,” Tim said.  “You kids have fun and don’t tear the place up.”  He started to walk out of the bay and then turned back to them.  “No.  Experiments.”

“What about social experiments?” Alexei asked.

“No.”

He left.  Everyone turned back to the aliens.  They all stood a little awkwardly, not sure what to say or do.  Then Naya stepped close to Josh and tried to discreetly point to Hannah and put his hand out in question.  But Hannah saw it.

“What?!” she screeched.  “Why is it pointing at me?!”

The aliens’ ears flattened in annoyance.

“Hannah, calm down,” Josh shushed her.  “They don’t like high pitched noises.”

“Or low ones,” Jim said, causing the aliens to pitch their ears in his direction.

“I don’t think they don’t like it,” Sara said, “I think they’ve just never heard anyone speak that low before.”

“That doesn’t answer why it’s pointing at me!” Hannah whisper-shouted.

“He’s not an it,” Josh said.

“Well, we don’t really know that,” Sara said.

“I know!” Alexei said excitedly.  “Tim said no experiments, but he didn’t say anything about no games.  We could play strip poker and find out for sure what they are.”

“And we’re going to be able to teach them how to play poker how…?” Evgeny asked.

“Trust me.  You don’t need to speak the same language to understand how to play poker.”

“Someone answer me why he, she, or it is inquiring about me!” Hannah demanded.

“Because they saw you faint last night,” Josh said.  “I think he’s just asking if you’re okay.”

“Oh.  Oh.  Well, that’s nice.”  She smiled awkwardly at the alien and said slowly, “I’m fine.”

Naya half-smiled nervously back at her and then looked at Josh.  He just waved a dismissive hand.

“So.  How about a tour?” Josh suggested.

“Is that a good idea?” Jim asked.

“Okay, how about if we don’t show them where the secret button is that can blow up Earth?”

Jim frowned at him.

“I think that’s a good idea,” said Sara.  “Maybe then they’ll let us go to their ship in return.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Josh said with a finger snap and gun point in Sara’s direction.

“You think we could really go in?” Xiaodan asked.

“Well.  They might feel comfortable with one or two of us,” Sara replied.

“No, I mean, _can_ we?  They might not have enough oxygen in their atmosphere.”

“Oh, that’s true,” she mused disappointedly.

“Could we take air tanks?” Josh asked.  “Do we have any small ones?”

“Not like theirs.”

“Well, let’s not worry about the reciprocation right now,” Naoki said.  “Let’s just try to keep them entertained for the next couple of hours.”

“Why don’t they keep _us_ entertained?” Alexei asked.

“Sure.  We’ll let you and Ben play intergalactic charades,” Josh suggested.

“Well, not Ben, he’s no fun.”

Ben looked at them.  Obviously he’d heard his name.  He had a questioning though guarded expression on his face.  Josh waved an arm to show they were all leaving.  Then he circled a finger in the air.  Hopefully they understood that he was going to take them around.  The humans started out first, Jim and Hannah taking the lead to put distance between themselves and the aliens, and Naya and Ben joined Josh and Sara in the rear.

Since the Moon Base was more or less a circle, it was pretty easy to give a tour.  They walked past the machinery that provided lights, atmosphere, and water for the facility.  It looked like the aliens wanted to go take a closer look, but Jim strongly advised against it.  Josh and Sara had rolled their eyes but kept going.  Then they passed the artificial gravity machine.  The magnetic field was strongest around that particular room and the aliens seemed to sense it.  They stopped and had a quick conversation together, and then Naya turned to Josh.  He pointed at the machine and then flattened his hand to making a pressing motion toward the ground.  Josh nodded.  Then the aliens had another discussion as they looked through the small window on the door.  They pointed through the glass to go inside and looked expectantly at Josh.  He looked at Jim, and then so did the aliens.  Jim shook his head.  They sighed softly and started to move on with the moderately silent tour.  Every now and then Sara or Alexei would try to explain something, but nothing was really getting across.  As they crossed from engineering toward the kitchen, they hit one of the fail points in the artificial gravity system.  Being somewhat used to it, the crew stepped through it easily, but Ben and Naya were caught off guard and stumbled.  Ben hit the wall pretty hard and Josh kept Naya from splattering on the floor by grabbing his elbow.  They righted themselves on the other side of the fail point.  Josh laughed embarrassedly.

“It’s not—a perfect system.”

Ben muttered something to Naya and he smiled in response.  The tour moved on.  They arrived at the kitchen and Sara looked at Jim.

“Do you think we can let them in here?” she teased him.

“As long as we watch them to make sure they don’t tamper with the food,” Jim responded seriously.

“Okay, you’re being paranoid even for me,” Hannah said.

The group laughed and the aliens looked around.  Josh waved a hand again and led them inside.  They looked around the space, seeming to be amazed by almost everything.  Josh wondered if he’d be just as impressed with one of their kitchens.  Were they really that different?  Then he had to wonder if they even knew they were in a kitchen.  Naya touched the sink faucet.  He waited.  Then he touched it again.  He looked to Josh for help.  Josh lifted up the faucet handle and water came out.  Naya kind of laughed.  He pushed the faucet down, and then up, and then back down.  He shook his head.

“Primitive technology,” Naoki laughed.  “That’s what he’s thinking.”

“Well, it’s not like we don’t have touch sinks,” Jim groused.

“Dude, seriously,” Alexei said.  “You’ve got to get over this.  Clearly they have far superior technology to ours if they can travel through wormholes.”

“It may have just been an accident,” Jim groused.

Naya turned the faucet on again and stuck a finger in the stream (with his glove still on), but then jerked it back.  He did that a couple more times, and then let the water run over his finger.  He brought the digit to his nose and smelled it.  Then he reached back to get another couple of droplets and brought it to his mouth, sticking out his tongue.  The other humans suddenly leaned in to get a good view of his black, slightly pointed tongue.  When Naya touched a couple of the droplets with his tongue, everyone heard Ben inhale sharply.  And then cough on the atmosphere.  Naya smiled and turned to Ben.  He said a word.  Then he collected some water in the palm of his hand and turned to Josh.  He repeated the word.

“Veeya,” Josh parroted the sound.

Naya nodded.  “Veeya.”

Josh turned the faucet off.  They couldn’t really afford to waste water.  Then he said, “Water.”

Naya made a face and then smiled and shook his head.

“Wah-ter,” Josh repeated.

Naya tried to copy the shape of Josh’s mouth.  Then he got out, “Vah-ter.”

Naoki chuckled.  “Are they German?”

Josh shook his head and tried to emphasize the “w” sound.

“Water,” Ben suddenly said.

Everyone looked at him.  His cheeks went all shimmery with the attention.

“Yes,” Josh said with a smile.  “That’s right.  Water.”

Ben turned to Naya and said something to him.  Then Naya let out a noise of understanding.  He turned back to the group.

“Water,” he said perfectly.

Josh nodded and then leaned close to Sara.  “Do you think he just told him what the sound is like in their own language, or are they really fast learners?” he murmured softly.

“I’m really not sure.  I wish Command would hurry up with that grammar app.”

“It’s been, like, twenty minutes.”

“So?  Aren’t you anxious?”

“Yeah,” Josh admitted.

The aliens poked around a bit more.  The humans were baffled when Naya found a metal spoon and licked it.  Then he waved it at them and asked a question.  Not knowing what else to do, Josh put some dry cereal in a bowl and used the spoon to bring it to his lips.  Naya laughed and grew a little shimmery.  Ben finally smiled for the first time that afternoon and said something that made both him and Naya laugh.  It was a strange sound to hear them laugh together.  It was almost like it was…harmonized.

Having finished examining the kitchen, and politely declining a glass of water, the aliens moved on with the tour.  In the next section was the recreation room.  Here really was the closest thing to home and comfort on the base.  It was a room with a couple of couches, a television, and a media player.  There were shelves upon shelves of books lining the walls of the 20x20 foot room as well as a few board games.  The aliens walked around the space, mostly ignoring the electronic equipment.  They seemed fascinated with the overstuffed microfiber couches.  Neither would sit, even after being shown that was what they were for, but they kept pushing on them with their hands.  Naya even removed his gloves to feel the fabric with his skin.  The ones who had not seen the aliens’ hands yet tried not to make it obvious that they were looking at him.  The diamonds of color were interesting markings, but his shiny, metallic-looking fingernails really grabbed their attention.  Ben was looking at the shelves of books and turned to Evgeny who was near him.  He asked a question and pointed to a book.  Evgeny felt his stomach flutter in nervousness because he couldn’t understand.

“Josh!” he squeaked.

Josh walked over to them.

“What?”

“He’s asking me something.  I don’t know what.”

Josh raised an eyebrow.  “And what makes you think I would understand him any better?”

Evgeny shrugged.  “I don’t know.  You seem to have better intuition.”

Josh shook his head and looked at Ben.  Ben asked his question again and reached for a book, but didn’t pull it out.  Josh looked at Evgeny. 

“You can’t tell that he’s asking if it’s okay that he look at a book?”

“Well, I can _now_ ,” he grumbled.

Josh nodded to Ben and gestured at the books.  “Go ahead.”

Ben gave him a small smile and then pulled out a copy of Machiavelli’s _The Prince_.  Interesting choice.  He flipped it open and looked over the words.  He ran his fingers down the page and smiled softly.  Then he looked up and around the room, taking in the large collection of books.  He smiled at Josh, much more naturally than he ever had and gestured around the room.  He said something and indicated the book in his hand.  Then he carefully, almost reverently, put it back in its place.

“Should we let Jim know that they’re at least impressed that we can read?” Evgeny murmured to Josh.

He bit back a smile and shot a glance in Jim’s direction.  He was standing at the door with his arms crossed, trying to monitor both aliens even though they were on opposite sides of the room.  Josh started when he noticed that Ben had reached up toward his face.  Ben snatched his hand back and shimmered so brightly he almost started to glow.  Josh put out a hand in a calming gesture.

“It’s okay,” he said.  “You just startled me.  What is it?”  He looked at Evgeny.  “Do I have something on my face?”

Evgeny looked at him.  “I don’t see anything.”

Josh looked back at Ben.  The shimmer was fading, but he still looked uncomfortable.  Josh smiled at him.

“What?” he asked.

Ben’s brow-less brow creased and he started to say something, and then stopped.  He slowly raised a hand, and had a questioning look on his face.  Josh nodded permission for the alien to touch him.  Ben put his fingers under Josh’s chin and he could feel just the slightest of electric currents coming from the fabric.  He thought he’d felt it earlier when he had stopped Naya from falling, but he’d attributed it to the AG fail point.  Now he was pretty certain their suits were charged.  Then Ben used his thumb to pull down lightly just below Josh’s lip, making it protrude a little.  He examined the lip.  Then released him.  Josh turned his head a little and gave the alien a questioning look.  He sighed and seemed to be thinking of a way to explain what he was curious about.  Then he opened his mouth and gently rested his incisors (fangs!) on his lower lip.  Then he applied a small amount of pressure.  When he released his lip, a clear, viscous liquid pooled in two shallow puncture wounds.  Then he licked his lip, and the holes appeared to have vanished.  He raised his chin at Josh.  Josh shook his head.  He bit down on his lip and then showed the alien his uninjured and non-leaking lip.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” Evgeny said, “but that is way gross.”

“I’m just curious what that liquid was and what it’s for.  It wasn’t blood; it was too thick.”

“Either way.  It was…weird.”

“Maybe it’s all the better to eat you with,” Josh smiled at Evgeny.

“Shut-up.  Like seriously.  Those teeth could tear us apart.”

Josh laughed and tapped his lip, and then he pointed at Ben.  Ben shook his head.  It was apparently too complicated to try to explain just yet.

They moved on from the rec room to the fitness room next door.  The aliens seemed baffled by the equipment, even when it was demonstrated what it was for.  Naya really got a kick out of the treadmill though and walked on it for several minutes.  He walked slowly, so as not to overexert his respiratory system, but Josh could tell he was curious to try it at a higher speed.

Then they took a break from the circular corridor to walk down the hallway that led to the scientific laboratories.  The aliens peeked through the windows the best they could, but mostly just walked by those rooms, sensing they would not be allowed in the closed off, technical looking rooms.  Sara did allow them to poke around in the med bay for a bit.  Josh could tell she was itching to get Ben on her table too, but Jim’s hawk-eye kept her from asking.  When they passed the hydroponics lab, Naya got really excited.  He gestured to go inside multiple times and turned what could only be described as pleading eyes onto the group.  He shifted his weight from foot to foot anxiously.  Everyone turned to look at Jim.  He took in the looks from his fellow crew members, and then the excited alien.  And then he sighed and waved an arm forward.  Naya let out a small, jubilant noise.  Sara used her card to open the door.  It wasn’t kept locked to keep the crew members out, but the room had a self-regulating program that closely monitored the temperature, humidity, and gas levels of the room.  If it was skewed out of balance, the room wouldn’t let people in until it was once again optimal.  The system was in place to give the plants the best possible chance of growing.  It had only been a couple of days since the room had been set up with the seeds and cuttings they’d brought from home, but they all appeared to be doing pretty well so far.

Naya was first inside, even getting in before Sara.  He sniffed the air.  It was warmer and much more humid than the cool, arid halls of the rest of the base.  He put his hands out, his gloves still off, and seemed to be sensing—maybe even reading—the atmosphere with his fingertips.  Then he walked up to a tomato plant and ever so gently touched one of the leaves.  He leaned in closed and smelled the plant.  He looked at Ben with a huge smile and said something.  Ben had a wry expression on his face and said something back that made Naya frown at him.  Then he walked slowly around the room, lightly touching every plant.

“Think he’s a botanist?” Naoki asked.

“Think they’re tree-hugging-technology-is-bad kind of aliens?” Alexei asked.

“Are you kidding?” Xiaodan said with a laugh.  “Not with how much they like metal.”

Naya probably would have spent hours in the room if they’d let him.  After twenty minutes they had to urge him to move on.  Half of the humans had already stepped outside the room to get out of the humidity.  Josh had stayed.  This was nothing compared to a Texas summer.  He looked at Sara.

“You think we could give him a cutting of one of the plants to take with him?”

Sara shrugged.  “I don’t see why not.  You think he’d want the tomato plant?”

“It did seem to be his favorite.”

Sara walked over to the corner and got a small potting plant and filled it with a little dirt.  Then she got a small glass vase and filled it halfway with water.  She cut off a portion of the plant and stuck it in the water.  She handed the vase to Naya.  His face lit up and he put a hand to his chest in a “for me?” kind of gesture.  She nodded.  He took the vase and smelled the plant again, rubbing his fingers over the slightly furry leaves.  Then Sara handed him the pot of dirt.

“How do I explain this?” she mused.  She pointed to the cutting and then wiggled her fingers before sticking them in the dirt.

“What the hell was that supposed to be?” Alexei asked.  “Tentacles?”

“No, roots,” Sara said, disappointed her message hadn’t been obvious.

Naya just smiled and nodded at her.  He started talking and held up the cutting and then the pot and then made a face like he knew what was going on.

“Looks like he knows what to do with it,” Josh said.

“Maybe he is a botanist,” Sara said.

Naya set down the pot of dirt and reached out for Sara’s hand.  He started to twine his fingers with hers and she just looked at him.  He chuckled softly and put down the cutting so that he could move her fingers around his.  He laced their pinky and ring fingers together, and then circled her thumb with his thumb and pointer finger.  He held her hand for a second and then released her.  Sara glanced at Josh, Alexei, and Sanjay.

“Thoughts?  Comments?” she asked.

All three shrugged.  Naya laughed and shook his head.  He put his hands out and asked a question.  They all shrugged back.  Then he waved his hand in pretty much a perfect copy of what Josh did whenever he was telling the aliens not to worry about trying to understand something the humans had done.  He picked up his vase and his pot and gestured with them and smiled.

“Thank you?” Sanjay asked.

They all looked at him.

He shrugged.  “The only thing I can think of that someone would say when they receive a present is ‘thank you.’”

“But he didn’t say anything,” Alexei pointed out.

“He took my hand,” Sara said.

“In a very specific way,” Josh mused.  “Interesting.”

Jim knocked on the window from outside.

“Yeah, we’re coming,” Alexei murmured.  “That guy really gets on my nerves.”

Josh and Sara exchanged looks.  Alexei got on a lot of people’s nerves.  They started to leave the hydroponics room and Josh glanced at Naya’s full hands.

“Think we should get him a bag or something?”

“Ah, he’s fine for now,” Sara said.  “We only have one more stop anyway.”

“True.”

The reformed group walked back down the laboratory hallway.  Ben was looking into the rooms with a slightly longing expression.  Once they reentered the circle, they walked past the dormitories.  They didn’t stop to show the aliens inside any and Ben asked Naya a question.  Naya replied matter-of-factly, probably because he remembered what these rooms were for after his visit with Josh last night.  Then they passed the conference room and walked down a stretch of hallway that was mostly wasted space.  They turned before reaching the communications room.  The humans weren’t sure if Jim had left the door open and for some reason they felt hesitant to parade the aliens in front of anyone just yet.  Then they all entered the space deck.  The aliens paused when they first walked in, taking in the view of the star studded blackness that had to be the one familiar thing between alien and human.

Naya put his gifts down on a bench and went to stand close to the dome.  He looked at the blue planet that was currently in a “half-earth” phase.  Josh moved to stand beside him.  Naya looked at him, pointed to Earth and then put two fingers to the center of his chest.  Josh wasn’t sure how to respond.  According to Command, they weren’t allowed to go to Earth.  He started to give a vague gesture, but then Naya shook his head.  He pointed to Earth and then put the two fingers to the center of Josh’s chest.  Josh got the impression that the gesture was very specific, and not just a way of pointing.  Josh nodded.

“That planet.  That is my home,” he said, putting his hand to his chest.

Naya smiled and nodded and looked back at Earth.  Ben was looking at the planet too.  He and Naya had a quiet conversation.

“Hey,” Naoki said as he came back into the room.  “I just checked with Tim and Command is going to piece together a program for them.  They said they needed about another hour.”

“Did they ask to see them?”Xiaodan asked.

“Strangely no.  I wonder why.”

“Probably because they really do have this place completely wired with cameras,” Hannah said gloomily.

“Oh, are you back on that conspiracy theory that you heard them talking about installing peep cams in the showers?” Alexei asked.  “Like anyone would be looking at you.”

“Hey.  There are some real pervs out there, okay?”

“No one has a fetish that weird.”

Hannah sputtered on her anger and Jim stepped between them.

“Will you two knock it off?  They may not be able to understand us, but you’re still embarrassing us.”

Alexei and Hannah crossed their arms and looked away from each other in a huff.

“So, what should we do now?” Evgeny asked.

“We could all go to the medical bay,” Sara suggested cheerfully.

“No,” came several replies.

Sara pouted.  “I’m going to get my hands on all of you eventually.  Might as well get it over with.”

“Let’s just go to the rec room so we can all sit down,” Xiaodan said.

“If they would even be willing to,” Josh laughed, remembering how neither alien had seemed inclined to sit on the plush couches.  He turned to Naya and Ben and tapped on his watch, and then he held up one finger.  They nodded.  Either they understood or they felt it would be less of a hassle to pretend they did.

The group walked back around the curved hallways and spilled into the rec room.  Sanjay, Alexei, and Evgeny plopped down on the couches and began to read through the catalog of movies and TV shows that were stored on their media player.  Jim and Hannah took seats in the single chairs in one corner.  Probably so an alien couldn’t sit next to them even if they wanted to.  Sara, Josh, Xiaodan, and Naoki waited to see what the aliens would do.  Josh could hear the men on the couch discussing which movie they could show the aliens that would really give the best overview of Earth life and culture.  Sanjay suggested they show them a movie about an alien invasion.

“Let’s not,” Jim grumbled from his corner.

The aliens stood awkwardly in the space, not sure what to do.  Ben was looking thoughtfully at the rows of books again.

“Oh, yeah,” Josh said as he remembered the notepad and mechanical pencil he had stuck in his pocket.  He’d been struck with an idea of a possible way to communicate something with them.  He waved to Naya to follow him to the small game table with four chairs set up near the collection of board games.  He sat down and the alien didn’t seem to have reservations about sitting on the hard chair.  Josh pulled out the Trivial Pursuit box and dug inside to find the plastic pie pieces.  He put one on the paper and drew the numeral 1 next to it.  Then he put two together and drew the number two.  Then he pointed to the numeral one and held up one finger, and then held up two fingers for the numeral two.  Naya quickly nodded understanding.  Josh drew the equation 1 +1 = 2.  Then he showed taking two separate pieces of pie and putting them together to make two pieces.  Naya made some noise, which Josh wasn’t sure if it was actual speech or just him acknowledging that he was understanding what Josh was trying to show him.  Naya held out his hand for the pencil and Josh gave it to him.  He had to show the alien how to hold it properly again, and then Naya carefully and slowly wrote symbols next to Josh’s equation.  He pointed to each one and then Josh’s corresponding symbol.  Josh grinned as he looked at the alien equation, and yet, he could understand it.  One plus one equals two was truly universal.  Some mathematicians would claim that was proof of the existence of God.

Josh quickly scribbled down simple subtraction, multiplication, and division problems so that Naya could learn the symbols for those operations.  Naya nodded, also clearly happy that there was something they could both understand.  The Josh wrote out F=ma.  He pointed to the F and then made a fist and punched his palm.  Naya blinked at him.  Josh half-laughed.  Maybe physics would be harder to get across.  But perhaps he just needed to get the ideas in Naya’s head and then he could draw conclusions.

“What are you doing?” Sara asked as she looked over their shoulders.

“I’m trying to communicate.  The laws of physics have to be the same, more or less, across the universe, so I figured we could talk about that.  We just have to figure out each other’s symbols.”

“What makes you think he knows anything about physics?”

“He’s an astronaut.  How could he not?”

Sara shrugged.  “I mean, I got an A in physics, but I’m not on par with you by any means.”

“You’re never going to be able to get him to understand,” Alexei said, joining them and sitting across the table from Josh and Naya.

“Did you guys give up on picking a movie?” Sara asked.

“I suggested _Alien_.  They’re talking about _Breakdown_ and _Florence’s Game_.”

“ _Florence’s Game_?” Josh asked.  “How could that movie possibly say anything about human culture?”

Alexei shrugged.  “I think Sanjay just thinks Mia Kraemer is hot.”

“Ah.”

Josh refocused on Naya.  He pointed to the F and punched his hand again.  Naya nodded, looking mildly amused by the human’s antics.  Josh decided to skip mass for now, that was a little complicated.  So, he pointed to the a and then slid his pencil across the table, making it go faster.  He did that a couple of times.  Then he pointed to the m.  What could he use?  He put the pencil in his hand and lifted it up and down like he was measuring its weight—even though technically mass and weight weren’t the same thing at all.  Then he did his signs for force, mass, and acceleration.  He looked at Naya hopefully.  Naya started to shrug, and then was pushed out his chair by Ben.  Naya squeaked in surprise and Ben took his chair.  He looked at the math problems at the top of the page, comparing the Earth symbols to his own.  Then he looked at the F=ma equation.  He talked to Naya and pointed to each symbol saying a word for each one.  Understanding dawned on Naya’s face and he looked at Josh.  He punched his palm with his fist and then said a word.  He nodded and then pointed at Josh.  Josh smiled back at him and then noticed Ben had clumsily written out a series of equations in his language.  He huffed in annoyance as he tried to get the pencil to do what he wanted.  Josh showed him how to hold it properly, and it became moderately easier for him.  Then Ben started talking to him and making gestures to show what his meant.

Sara turned to Xiaodan.  “Okay, so Josh found a physics friend.  Let’s see if poker really is something you can teach someone who doesn’t speak your language.”

“Ooo!” Alexei said and jumped out of his seat.  “I’ll get the cards!”

“Maybe the concept of betting will be too hard to get across,” said Naoki, and followed the group who was ushering Naya to the coffee table in between the couches.

“Maybe we should start with something simple like ‘drunkard’ or something,” said Evgeny from the couch.

“What is ‘drunkard?’” Sanjay asked.

Alexei sat down on the floor by the coffee table and broke the seal on a brand new pack of cards.  “You don’t know drunkard?  It’s like the first card game kids learn.”

“Does he mean ‘asshole?’” Sara asked and patted the couch cushion next to her for Naya to join her.

He looked at the spot and then made a strange motion with his hands.  Then he sat on the floor like Alexei.

“Do they not like soft things?” Naoki asked, taking the spot instead.

“Maybe you know it by a different name,” Evgeny said.  “It’s usually only played with two people.  Each person puts down a card and the highest one wins.  If it’s the same card you put down three cards and then turn one over and the highest one wins.”

“Ohhh,” Sanjay said.  “You mean ‘war.’”

“You call it war?

“Yeah.  You call it drunkard?  How does that make sense?”

“Well, how does yours make sense?”

“Because you have battles until you tie, and then you have to have a war.”

“Oh.  Well.  That only partially makes sense.”

“But that only takes two players,” Sara said.  “We need one that eight people can play.”

“I’m not playing,” Jim said.

“Surprise, surprise,” Alexei muttered.

“Hannah?” Sara asked.

“I’ll watch for now.”

“And I’m pretty sure the math geeks over there aren’t interested.”

“I’m going to teach her poker,” Alexei said.  “I can do it.”

“Okay, but it can’t be strip poker or Tim will quite possibly kill us,” Naoki said.

“And he’s a he!” Sara corrected Alexei.

“Not until I see proof,” replied the Russian.

“So what kind are we going to play?” Sanjay asked, scooting forward on the couch.

“Texas Hold ‘Em.  That’s the easiest one to teach.”

“Yeah, but you’ve got more than just teaching the game, Alexei,” Sara said.  “We’ve got to teach him what each card means.”

“That’s easy.”  He spread out the suit of hearts on the table and showed them to Naya.  He pointed to the 2 and put his index finger and thumb very close together, then he made the space get wider as he moved up to the ace.  Naya looked at the cards, saw the number two, pointed to it, and held up two fingers.  Alexei nodded.  Naya pointed to the three and held up three fingers.  Alexei gave him a thumbs up.  “I think the alien’s got it.”

“Do you expect him to remember those brand new symbols at one glance?”

Alexei turned to look at Josh.  “Josh.  Josh!”

“What?” Josh looked up from his work.

“Can we borrow some of that paper?”

Josh and Ben had realized quickly that they needed a bigger working space, so they had traded up for a larger notepad.  He’d let Ben keep the mechanical pencil and he’d found a short one that was a part of a board game set.  Josh threw Alexei the smaller pad and one of the small pencils.  Then he returned to his work with Ben.

Alexei quickly wrote out the numbers and face card symbols on the pad in order and drew an arrow with a skinny bottom and a wide top.  He gave it to Naya to hold onto.  Then he began to sort through the deck of cards, pulling out the cards he wanted.

“What are you doing?” Naoki asked.

“Putting together all the different hands.  Then we can put those in order for him too.”

“I actually could use a cheat sheet like that too,” Naoki laughed.

“Me too,” Sara admitted.

“What are we going to use to bet with?” Evgeny asked.  “There’s no point to poker if you don’t bet.”

“We could just play to see who has the best hand,” Sara suggested.

“That’s boring,” Alexei protested.

“Well, what option do we have?  We have no money.”  She glanced over at Jim and lowered her voice.  “Strip could be interesting but we’d have to get Captain Rule Book out of the room.”

“I heard that,” Jim groused.

“We could make some chips,” said Sanjay, “and just make the values be points instead of money.”

“That could work,” Sara said.

“Yeah, and take all the fun out of the game,” Alexei said.

“Don’t be such a prat.  That’s not the point of it right now.  Later, much later, when we can possibly understand each other, then you can broach the subject of gambling.”

“Besides, we don’t know anything about him,” said Hannah.  She’d dragged her chair just a little bit closer.  “He could have a gambling addiction and it would be rude to ask him to do it.”

They all turned and looked at her.

“What?  He could.”

 

Tim walked down the stark white hallway having an even more surreal experience than usual.  The base really was such a futuristic movie set kind of joke that he always felt like he was in some bad sci-fi movie.  And now here he was, walking through the halls on his way to talk with…the alien visitors.  Truly bizarre.  As he drew near the rec room, he heard a sudden burst of shouts.  It occurred to him to be alarmed, except it sounded distinctly like a group of people shouting in fun, excitement, and a little bit of disbelief.  He entered the room and took in the scene.  Ben and Josh were hunched over something at the game table, and everyone else was crowded around the coffee table either on the floor or the couches.  Hannah and Jim had dragged their chairs over to observe the activities.  Tim walked over to see what the larger group was doing.  It looked like Alexei, Evgeny, Naoki, Sara, Xiaodan, and…Naya…were playing poker.  The chips were torn up pieces of paper with numbers written on them.  The majority were in front of Naya.  It appeared that he’d won the last hand and that’s why everyone had shouted.

Tim looked at the alien.  He sat cross-legged on the floor and had taken his blue suit jacket off and somehow attached it to his waist.  He wore a green, long-sleeved T-shirt looking garment.  He was scooping the paper chips toward him with a grin while everyone else was throwing their cards down in disgust.

“He’s gotta be cheating,” Alexei said.

“Don’t be a sore loser,” Evgeny said.

“I’m not.  I’m just stating the obvious.  Because he’s winning even when I cheat.”

“Hey!”

Everyone yelled at him.

“I think he has X-ray vision,” Sanjay said.

Sara laughed.  “Close, but not quite.  Have you noticed that he can move his eyeballs independently of each other?”

Everyone looked at him.  He blinked back at them.

“Plus there’s the fact that his pupils are rectangles, so he probably has a much a wider range of peripheral vision than we do.”

Alexei and Naoki, who were sitting closest to him, glanced at him suspiciously.  Naya tilted his head in question.  Sara picked up a card and held it out to the side.  Then she pointed to her eyes, and then the card.  And then she pointed at Naya.  He smiled and shrugged one shoulder.

“That cheat!” Alexei said.

“Maybe not for him,” Tim said.  “Maybe their culture puts more emphasis on strategy and not rules.”

“All I know is that as soon as we get clearance to take them to Earth, we’re hitting Vegas.”

“Oh, do we have clearance?” asked Sara.

“Not yet,” Tim replied.  “They’re still working out the logistics of where they would land.  There’s a big political argument about which country they should have first contact with.”  He shrugged.  “For now, they can stay up here.  And the politicians are staying down there.”

“Does the public know yet?” Sanjay asked.

“I don’t think so.  I think there haven’t been any leaks yet.  Amazingly.  But I’ve got the grammar and pronunciation app loaded onto Josh’s iPad.  So, I guess they can take it back to their ship and do whatever it is they did before in order to figure out the dictionary.  Maybe by tomorrow, we could really be communicating.  For now, let’s go ahead and send them back to their ship.  I’m hungry, and they might be too, and who knows if they can eat our food.”

The group mumbled various things, but began to get up, so he didn’t try to listen too hard to what they were saying.  Tim walked over to Josh and Ben.  They didn’t really seem to be aware of anything going on in the room.  There were pages and pages of equation and scribble filled paper covering the table.  Josh was writing something while Ben watched him.  He touched Josh’s shoulder and the boy started.  Tim wondered why he thought of him as a boy.  He was 25 years old and tall and quite muscular.  Perhaps it was his aura of innocence.

“I’ve got the program,” Tim said.

“Oh, good.  That was fast,” Josh said.

Tim chuckled.  He had a feeling Josh hadn’t been aware of any passage of time buried as he was in his physics stupor.

Josh rubbed his eyes and shook out his cramping hand.  He glanced at the mess he and Ben had created.  He was astonished how much paper they had gone through.  After covering the basic signs and formulas, they had essentially begun a conversation in physics, showing each other their theories and then reading the other’s opinions on it.  Josh had actually managed to work out a solution to something he had been working on for years just based on a new idea he got from Ben.  He glanced over the last few pages to see if he could locate the new equations, and then he felt a strange sense of wonder that was also slightly akin to dread.  He had taught Ben Earth symbols, and Ben had taught him his native symbols.  The first few pages were a mix, but as they’d worked, the symbols had slowly all become the alien ones.  There were three pages written in Josh’s handwriting, and none of it was anything he recognized.  He could remember some of the alien symbols as he looked at them, but he couldn’t quite make out what he’d been writing for the last half hour though he was certain it made perfect sense.  Well, physics sense at least.  His brain had been temporarily rewired.

Naya stopped beside them to look at their work with his pot of dirt and plant cutting in his hands.  He asked Ben a question and then the larger alien smiled.  He reached out with a hand and put his thumb and index finger behind Josh’s mandible.  He felt that small electrostatic charge from the glove pass through his body and Ben pulled on him just a little bit.  He said something else that made Naya try to hide a smile.  Now Josh didn’t feel so bad about thinking he wanted to keep Naya as a pet; he was pretty sure Ben felt the same way about him now.

Ben collected the sheets of paper and folded them in half as he stood up.  Josh kind of hoped he’d be able to keep them himself, or at least make copies, but he didn’t try to ask.  As the aliens followed the humans out of the room, Sanjay paused by Josh.

“Dude, are you okay?”

“Hm?” Josh asked, looking up at him.

“You look a little…spacey, if you’ll forgive me for using that word.”

“Oh, sorry.  I guess I just…”  Josh rubbed his forehead.  “Did a little too much physics.”

Sanjay smiled, and looked like he might laugh if he did that sort of thing.  “Yeah, you and Ben did look like you were having more fun over here.”

“What were you guys doing?” Josh asked as he stood up.

“Playing poker.”

“Oh.  What was Naya doing?”

“Beating the pants off us.”

Josh laughed as they left the room.  “You guys taught him how to play poker?”

“Yep.  And he picked it up pretty fast.  Though Sara thinks he was cheating because he could see Alexei and Naoki’s cards with his peripheral vision.”

“Well, it’s not really cheating if your opponent isn’t careful with his cards.”

“Well, how would we know that he has like 270° vision?”

Josh shrugged.  “I’m just saying.”

“That you cheat when you play cards?”

“Of course.  But that’s because I can count cards.”

Sanjay let out a small laugh.  “I should let Alexei know so that he can take you along on his trip to Vegas with Naya.”

“We would probably clean up quite nicely.”

They both smiled as they followed the white corridor around to the docking bay.  Josh was amused as he watched Tim try to indicate to the aliens that he and the rest of the crew were going to eat.  He didn’t think his message was really getting across.  The aliens did seem to understand that they were being asked or told that they should or could go back to their ship.  Ben had Josh’s iPad in hand again and was getting ready to put on his helmet when Naya tugged at his elbow.  He showed him the plant and then pointed to the dressing room.  Ben partially sighed and shrugged his shoulders.  Naya looked at Sara with sad eyes and extended the tomato plant cutting to her.

“Oh!  He can’t take it in the vacuum.  We need to do something for him.”

“Maybe we could put it in a helmet?” Evgeny suggested.

“But that can’t be pressurized on its own,” Xiaodan said.

“Maybe they have something in their ship they can put it in and come back for it later,” said Naoki.

Sara looked at Naya and made a box in the air with her hands around the plant cutting.  Naya looked like he was thinking about his inventory on his ship.  Then Xiaodan walked over to the space suit cabinets and opened a door.

“Someone help me put this on.  I’ll go look what they’ve done on the other side and maybe we can pressurize the dressing room.”

The aliens watched with amused interest as they suited up the human for a space walk.  No one was sure if they had managed to communicate to the aliens what their intentions were, but only Ben put his helmet on.  He handed off the iPad to Naya who put it on the floor beside his cutting and pot of dirt.  Ben and Xiaodan squeezed into the airlock and then crossed to the other side of the dressing room to examine what the aliens had done to the outer airlock.

“Well, while they’re doing that,” Tim said, “I’m going to go get some lunch.  I missed breakfast and I’m starving.”

He started to leave and Jim moved to follow him.

“I’m a—ah, hell.  I just wanna leave,” Jim admitted.

“And I better do a check on the machinery,” said Naoki.  “Don’t do anything fun without me.”

“No, of course not,” the others murmured as he left.  The ones left waited to see if Hannah would come up with an excuse to leave, but she really seemed to have settled down over the last couple of hours.  And she seemed to find Naya cute and harmless.  Josh was afraid they all did, but in actuality, none of them really knew anything about him or what he was capable of.  It _was_ entirely possible that they were rogue criminals who had stolen a spaceship and accidentally blasted themselves here.  Though Josh wasn’t really getting that vibe from them.  Especially not from Ben.  He seemed too…official.

Naya clasped his hands behind his back and smiled at the humans.  Josh noticed his eyes kept going to Sara’s chest.  He apparently hadn’t noticed Hannah’s; not that there was much to notice.  He wished he’d brought the notepad with him so that he could draw pictures of male and female bodies.  Not that he was a good artist, but perhaps it would help with the alien’s confusion.  He waved Naya over to him and then stood beside Sara.  He indicated himself, and then Sara, and then put his hands apart.  Would that convey difference?  Naya narrowed his eyes, causing his pupils to shrink to tiny squares.  Then he opened them again and the rectangles spread out.  He put out a hand, and Sara backed up before he could touch her.

“Stop moving,” Alexei said.  “It’s not like you have a husband to worry about.  Let her cop a quick feel.”

“Why don’t _you_ let him?” Sara retorted, miming grabbing her non-existent external genitals.

Alexei shrugged.  “Sure.”

He walked over to Naya and started to unbutton his pants.  Josh reached out and stopped him.

“What are you doing?!”  He tried to sound upset, but he was laughing.

Naya was observing them all carefully.

“What?  I don’t mind.”

“He might!” Evgeny said.

“I just think there are better ways to demonstrate that we’re different,” said Josh, still laughing as he imagined what Naya’s reaction might be if Alexei just dropped his pants.

“Like what?” Alexei asked, fingers still on his zipper.

“Um…”  Josh looked at Hannah.  “Come here, Hannah.”

“Why?” she asked suspiciously.

“Just, come here.”

She came over reluctantly and Josh positioned her next to Sara.  Then he lined up Sanjay, Alexei, Evgeny, and himself across from the girls.  He indicated the space to Naya.

“We’re not the same,” he said.

Naya glanced back and forth between the two lines.  He stepped closer to look at the boys and then he looked at the girls.  He leaned in kind of close to see Hannah’s chest.  She frowned.  Not in a “the alien is too close to me” kind of way, but more like “they’re not _that_ small.”

Naya nodded thoughtfully.  He said something, but they weren’t sure what.  They could tell it wasn’t a question though.  It was more like he was speaking to himself.  Then he indicated the space between the two groups like Josh had, and made cups with hands over his chest, and then flattened them out.  He rubbed one hand with a finger, and then made a gesture that looked remarkably like a human would do to indicate that there was “nothing.”

“What was that?” Hannah asked.

Everyone else shrugged.  Naya let out a small frustrated noise and then took Evgeny by the hand and pulled him across the space to the girls.  Then he took Alexei over there too.  He indicated the space between the two groups again.

“Did he just segregate us?” Sanjay asked.  “Maybe we should explain to him about the Civil Rights Act.”

“He’s asking if skin color is a difference,” Josh said.

“Well, it kind of is,” said Alexei.

“No, not for what he’s asking.  Or at least, not for what I’m explaining.”  He crossed over to the girls and rubbed the skin on his hand for the alien to see, and then he pointed to the girls.  He made the “no difference” motion with his hands.  Then he took Alexei and Evgeny back over to the boys’ side.  He waved between them.  “This is the difference,” he said.

Naya made the cups in front of his chest again.  Josh let out a small laugh and then nodded his head.

“Yeah, I guess,” he responded.

“That’s not it,” Alexei said.  “Men can have boobs.  Naya.”  The alien looked at him as he crossed to stand close to the girls again.  He pointed to the women and then held that hand up in the shape of an “o.”  Then he indicated the boys and held up his pointer finger.  This he moved his finger in and out of the hole he’d formed with his other hand.

“Alexei!” Hannah screeched and everyone else either laughed or yelled at him.

Naya had started to laugh at the motion and then put a finger to his mouth as his cheeks turned shimmery.

“See?” Alexei cried triumphantly.  “You have to be very direct about this stuff.”

Naya glanced back and forth between the two groups.  Once his shimmer faded, he moved the hand that was over his mouth and put it on his waist.  Then he scratched his head with the other hand.  He pointed a finger to both groups and then put one finger in the air and asked a question.  Everyone stared at him.

“I think we somehow just confused him further,” Josh murmured.

“Does that mean they don’t have sex the same way we do?” Alexei asked.

Sara whined softly.  “Damn Tim and his no experiments rule.  I could find out easily enough.”

“So could Josh,” Alexei smirked at him.

“What do you mean?” Josh sighed.

“I’m just saying: a little candlelight, some eye gazing, and you could probably seduce her.”

Josh laughed and rolled his eyes.  “Seriously, I think he’s a dude, so I’m not interested.  And secondly, I have a gorgeous fiancée waiting for me back home who would break every bone in my body if I cheated on her with an extraterrestrial.”

Alexei shrugged.  “How she gonna know?  We won’t tell her.  Come on.  It’s in the name of scientific discovery.”

Josh gave him a look.

“You know, Josh,” Sara said, “even if he technically is a male of his species, it’s entirely possible that their sexual organs don’t work in the same way.  Not all males of all species on Earth have penises.”

Evgeny, Alexei, and to Josh’s surprise and disappointment, Sanjay giggled.  Sara shot them a look.

“Reptiles, birds, and a lot of fish use a cloaca.”

“Why are you telling me this, Sara?”

“Because he may not look and respond the way a human male does when sexually aroused.  So, it may not be an automatic turn off.”

“Yes, but why are you telling _me_ this?”

“Oh.  I just figured Alexei is right and if any of us have a shot with him, it’s you.”

Everyone laughed and Josh groan-shouted in annoyance.

“Seriously people!  What is with that?  I haven’t shown any more interest in them than any of you have.”

“True,” Evgeny said.  “But _they’ve_ shown more interest in you than any of us.”

“They have not,” Josh grumbled as he crossed his arms and blushed.

Naya had a strange expression on his face as he tried to follow the conversation.

“Why are we talking about this anyway?” Hannah asked.  “We are adults and scientists.”

“So?” Evgeny and Sanjay said.

“Last time I checked, we’re all still human,” Alexei said.  “And that’s pretty much all we think about.”

“Maybe _boys_ ,” Hannah emphasized the younger version of the male gender.

“No, all of us.  Girls are just too hoity-toity to admit it.”

“What is hoity-toity?” Evgeny asked.

“I don’t know.  I heard somebody use it once to describe someone who was stuck up.”

Josh chuckled and put a hand to his forehead.  “Oh, my God,” he murmured softly.

Naya looked at him questioningly.  Josh could only smile at him.  They were going to have to be careful if the aliens ever really did learn their language.  They might be really offended otherwise.  For now, Naya just saw the smile, so he smiled back.

“See?’ Alexei said.  “Now, make your move.  Let’s find out what she is.”

“Make my move?” Josh laughed.  “And what is that?”

He walked over to Naya and put an arm around his shoulders and spoke in a cheesy voice.  “Hey, I know we have completely different constellations in our solar systems, but what’s your sign?”

Naya’s ears perked forward and the others laughed at his bewildered expression.  He glanced at them and a slow shimmer spread across his cheeks.

“Oh, knock it off,” Sara said.  “We’re embarrassing him.”

Just then, the airlock depressurized and the door opened.  They could all see that the second door on the lock had been left open into the dressing room space, so the whole room had to be pressurized.  Xiaodan and Ben stepped into the room and removed their helmets.

“It’s okay?” Hannah asked.

“Yeah,” Xiaodan said, shaking out his short hair.  “They actually took the whole door off on the other side and sealed their airlock against the side of the dressing room.  I had to rig our side to make it think the door was shut, but it allowed me to pressurize the room from out there, so it must think that the seal is secure.  I have to admit, that system is amazing.  It pressurized the whole room in just five minutes.  Did you guys feel a change in here?”

They all shook their heads.

“Not that we were paying attention,” Evgeny chuckled.

“Well, someone help me out of this,” Xiaodan said.

Evgeny and Sanjay moved to help him get out of the cumbersome suit.

“We really need to ask about getting those spiffy suits for ourselves,” Sara mused.

Ben and Naya were watching with just as much amusement of the human taking his suit off as they had watching him put it on.  Then Ben said something to Naya.  He nodded and glanced up at Josh who still had his arm around his shoulders.  He hadn’t meant to be invasive, but he’d been trying to feel if the shirt Naya wore also had a charge or if it was regular fabric.  As far he could tell, it was pretty normal.

“All right then,” Josh said, “I guess we’ll let them get back and see if they can make heads or tails of our language.”

He slid his hand across the shirt and patted Naya on the top part of his shoulder, and then the alien suddenly gasped and leaned into him.  Everyone in the room turned to look at the cause of the sharp sound.  It hadn’t been out of pain.  Josh looked to see if he had inadvertently done something, and he noticed the edge of his thumb rested on a strange “thing” on the back of Naya’s neck.  It was kind of oval shaped, but flatter on top and bent slightly downward at the ends.  It was grey and looked like it was made of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of tiny little folds.  It was definitely a part of his body.  Josh moved his thumb across the folds; they were very soft, but kind of rigid, almost like the gills of a mushroom cap.

Naya fell against him, crying out with a noise that no one could mistake for anything other than a sound that belonged in a bedroom.  Josh immediately jerked his hand off the…organ?  And tried to take a step back, but Naya was leaning almost his full weight against him, one hand curled around his wrist, squeezing hard.

“What the hell did you do to him?” Alexei asked with a laugh, but he also seemed concerned.

Ben was across the room in a flash and grabbed Naya.  He slapped his face once, which made him raise his head and get somewhat back on his feet.  Ben helped him stumble toward the dressing room.  Ben was talking and waving his free hand at the humans as the other was being used to support Naya.  He gave the smaller alien a shake, and Naya shook his head and straightened a little further.  Everyone could see his pupils had dilated to the size of his irises.  He blinked at the occupants of the room with blacked out eyes, but no one was sure if he could really see anything.  Ben was glowing he was so shimmery with embarrassment.  He said something else, but stopped midway through the sentence, and then just pushed Naya through the airlock and made him go back to their ship.

Everyone watched as they made their way across the airlock and then heard the opening and closing sounds of a door on the alien side.  Then they all turned to look at Josh.  He put his hands out in innocence.

“I swear I didn’t do that on purpose.”


	5. Interlude~Cover Your Naughty Bits

Ben dropped Naya off on a bench just on the other side of their airlock.  He leaned against the side of the ship and put a hand on his head, feeling the cool rush of his embarrassment coloring his face.  Naya slumped down, riding out the quick high Josh had accidentally induced in him.

“Naya!” Ben shouted, even though he knew it was too early to have a rational conversation with the stimulated idiot.  “How did he get your guard off?”

Naya lay down on his back and put his hands through his hair, trying to force his body to ignore the chemicals that were slowly dissipating in his blood stream.  He concentrated on Ben’s words.  It helped when you didn’t give yourself over to the wave.

“I wasn’t wearing it,” Naya admitted.

Ben sputtered for a few moments.  “That’s so indecent!  How could you?!”

“Because.  It’s just for in the presence of females.  It’s not like the aliens would know what it is.  I didn’t think they would touch it.  Besides, it was an accident.”

“Exactly.  It was an accident because they obviously don’t know what it is and don’t know not to touch it.  That’s why you should have been wearing your guard!”

“But it hurts!” Naya whined.

“It hurts all of us, but we wear it for decency’s sake.  So we don’t…expel in front of strange aliens we just met!”

“I didn’t,” Naya said, now feeling more or less back to normal and able to sit up again.  “Though it was awfully close.  I couldn’t believe it.  He just touched it once and I was gone.”

Ben looked at Naya, curious despite himself.  “Just once?”

“Yeah.  The texture on his fingertips really got it stimulated.  Well, either that or it’s been almost a bloody year and I’m kind of horny.  It’s not exactly something you can do on your own, you know.”

“I know,” Ben snapped and covered his face with his hands.  “I am so embarrassed.  I can’t face them again.”

“You?  What about me?  You’re not the one who—well, who, you know.  I hope Josh wasn’t embarrassed.”

“He probably was!  And what if their species is very modest when it comes to sex?  You could have offended them as well.”

“No, I don’t think so.  I’m pretty sure they don’t much care talking about it.  And in mixed company either.”

Ben put his hands on his waist.  “Why would you know that?” he asked with a tone that implied he hoped Naya meant he only thought that out of his own imagination.

“Because, I’m quite positive that Sara and that skinny one that fainted are a different gender from all the others.  And their skin color is something that can vary over both genders.  Like us.  And they were in the room when Lexi made some pretty crude gestures.  At least, I think they were crude.  Probably so based on the reaction he got from the others.”

“A reaction?  Like, he shouldn’t be talking about it in their culture?”

“Oh, maybe so.”

Ben sighed and shook his head.  Then he couldn’t stop the slight tugging of a smile at the corner of his lips.  “So, is Sara male or female?”

“Still working on that one.  Though I wouldn’t mind if Josh were female.  That might make our encounter a little less awkward.”

Ben scoffed at him.  “When has having a male in that position ever bothered you?”

Naya smiled lazily at him.  “True.”

“What are we supposed to tell them?” Ben cleared his throat and looked away from his partner.  They didn’t need to rehash their academy days.

“I don’t think we can tell them anything.  Did you bring that device with you when you dragged me out of there?”

Ben groaned and glanced back at the alien compound.  “No,” he mumbled.

“Well, go get it.  And don’t forget my plant.”

“ _You_ go get it.”

Naya sighed.  “Fine.”

He started to get up, but Ben stopped him.  “No, I’ll get it.  You go put your guard on.”

“Not if we’re staying over here,” he said like Ben was crazy for even suggesting it.

Ben grumbled to himself and entered the airlock.  He closed the door behind him.  He didn’t need to depressurize or re-pressurize it, but he wanted to keep the alien’s atmosphere from mixing with their own.  He stepped into the outer room of the alien compound and timidly made his way to the doors that had been left open.  He peeked his head inside and breathed a sigh of relief to find the room empty.  He picked up the alien device, the plant in the vase, and the pot of dirt.  Then he quickly scurried back to his ship.


	6. The Program

Everyone at the table burst into laughter and Josh pouted as he picked at his serving of “goulash.”  Alexei, Sara, and Sanjay were telling a slightly exaggerated version of what had happened with Naya to Tim, Jim, and Naoki who had missed it.  They were gathered in the kitchen, eating dinner, and Josh didn’t think it was appropriate dinner conversation.  Especially since he couldn’t stop blushing.

“It’s not that funny,” Josh grumbled.

“Oh, it really is,” Naoki laughed.  “And it’s nothing to be embarrassed about, my friend.  You should be proud of your magic fingers.”

Everyone brayed with laugher again and Evgeny had to cover his mouth so that he didn’t spit his food everywhere.

“It wasn’t my magic fingers.  It was his magic…gills.”

If it was possible, everyone laughed harder.

“You really couldn’t tell you were touching his dong?” Sanjay asked, the mostly giggly Josh had ever seen him.

“Of course not!  None of you would.  And I don’t think it was—”

“Wait, wait,” said Alexei, trying to breathe around his laughter, “what’s a dong?”

“Your junk,” Sanjay explained.

Alexei shook his head.  “Don’t use slang.”

“His penis,” Sara helped him out, unafraid of anatomical terms.

The younger ones laughed at that.

“It wasn’t—” Josh shouted and then lowered his voice, “It wasn’t his penis.  It was just…you know what?  I’m not talking about it.”

“Her…?” Alexei asked, saying a word in Russian.

Evgeny had to bury his face in his arms on the table.  His shoulders shook with laughter.

“I don’t want to know what you just said,” Hannah said.

“I do,” said Sanjay.

“I don’t know the English word for it.  But, it’s a girl part.”

“Oh, you mean—” started Sara, but Tim cut her off.

“That’s enough.  We are not some summer camp of a bunch of kids hanging out for fun.  This is a professional installment and we are co-workers and colleagues.  We need to show each other respect and not cross any lines that we wouldn’t if we were back on Earth.  We don’t want to become too—”

“Familiar with each other?” Sara asked.

“Well.  Not to put too fine a point on it, but yes.”

“At least not with the boss,” Naoki said.

Tim gave him a look.

“So what are we going to do about Naya and Ben?” Xiaodan asked.  “Do we need to go invite them back over here and tell them it’s okay to come back?  At least they haven’t flown off yet, but it’s been several hours.  What if they don’t want to interact with us anymore?”

“I think they still intend to,” said Sanjay.  “I told you when I went back to the docking bay the iPad and the plant were gone.  They’ll come back at the very least to give back the iPad.”

“Well, we can hope,” Hannah said.  “Otherwise property will have Josh’s ass in a sling.”

Everyone laughed again and Josh said, “Thanks, Hannah.”

“Maybe they’re working on their language analyzing program now,” Naoki said.  “That might take some time.  They’ll probably stop by tomorrow.  More than likely at the same time since we didn’t exactly get to arrange a new time.”

Everyone glanced at Josh, and then had to hide their faces as they sniggered quietly.  Josh sat back in his chair and threw his spoon down.

“All right.  I’m done.  I’m going to bed.”

Josh pushed back his chair and didn’t even bother to put his dishes in the sink.  Tim might dress him down for it later, but he was willing to risk the reprimand just to get away from the snickering.  It’s not like what happened had really been that bad.  So, he’d accidentally sexually stimulated an alien.  Who hasn’t?

As Josh walked through the white, curving halls, he gingerly rubbed his left wrist.  He looked down and could see light bruising appearing in the shape of slender fingers.  The others hadn’t seen it because his skin color had mostly hidden it, but he’d been feeling it all afternoon.  Naya had really gotten a grip on him.  And he’d felt the hardness underneath the fine, soft scales/skin.  It didn’t feel like human bone.  It felt harder.  Much harder.  He’d even let it briefly pass through his mind that maybe they were cyborgs sent into space in place of real people.  But, a cyborg probably wouldn’t have had that kind of response to being touched in a special place.  Unless the aliens who had built the cyborg were perverts.  Maybe it was the Japanese.

Josh shucked his shoes off as he entered his dorm and headed directly for the shower, shedding clothes as he went.  He hated being relegated to seven minute showers (by a timer on the mechanism that shut off the water whether the person using it was done or not), but at least they could shower every day.  He did a super fast body wash and used his shampoo and conditioner combined product so that he would have time to shave in the shower.  For some reason he found it easier to do it there than over the sink.  He got out with thirty seconds to spare and wished that they could bank their unused time for a longer shower at a later date.  He left his clothes on the floor, hoping Tim would be too distracted to go through with his threatened “surprise inspections” and pulled on a pair of blue boxer-briefs with a smiling cartoon hamster on the left leg.  Marissa had given him the underwear.  It came with a set of four others and each one was a different color with a different animal.  At least his stuff would never get mixed in with someone else’s on laundry day.

He picked up the picture of his fiancée from his desk and plopped down onto his bed.  He held the frame over his face so that he could study her.  His eyes roamed over every angle of her face, every curve of her body.  He brought the frame to his chest and closed his eyes with a sigh.  He didn’t want to go home and miss out on spending more time with Naya and Ben, but he wished he could be with her.  He wondered if she would be willing to come here.  She wasn’t really too keen on the idea of space travel.

Josh turned his head as he thought he heard a noise.  Then he heard the soft sound again: someone was knocking on the thick metal door.  They should have installed doorbells.  Josh got up and could only muster the will to pull on an undershirt before pushing the button that activated the small display screen next to the door.  Sara was waiting outside.  She had changed into a thin white tank top and light blue exercise shorts of the kind girls wore: short and tight.  She wasn’t very tall, but most of it was leg.  She was standing far enough away from the door that he could see her entire body, including those shapely legs.  He wondered if she’d done that on purpose.  He also noticed that the tank top was thin enough for him to be able to tell that it must be cold out in the hallway.  Josh blushed and dropped his head as he swallowed thickly.  What was she doing wandering around the halls dressed like that?  He heard her knock again, so he took his thumb off the display button and straightened.  He gave himself a little shake, felt reasonably sure he was no longer blushing, and then opened his door.  Sara smiled brightly at him, and then her smile faltered a little as her eyes dropped from his face.

“Heh, heh,” she laughed nervously and a little lecherously, “I thought we weren’t supposed to get too familiar with each other.”

Josh blushed again.  He’d been so concerned with what _she_ was wearing that he forgot he was wearing equally little clothing.  “Sorry.  You want to wait for me to change?”

“Absolutely not.”

“And like you’re one to talk,” he said indignantly.

“Mm-hm.”

“Sara.”

“Yes?”

Josh clicked his fingers.  “Up here.”

She looked up to meet his eyes.  “I know.  And don’t think this means you’re hot.  I was just checking out that cute little…gerbil?”

“Hamster.”

“Right.  Well, anyway, now you know how it feels when men do the same thing to women.”

“Men don’t care about being ogled.”

“Ah.  Then why are you snapping your fingers at me and distracting me from that delicious view?”

“Uh…”  Josh blushed, again, and looked away.  He could tease up to a point, but he’d always been razzed by other guys for being too sensitive and modest.  He took in a little breath and looked shyly back at Sara.  “What can I do for you, Sara?”

“Well, that’s a loaded question, isn’t it?” she grinned at him.

“Oh, geez.”  His face was simply on fire this time so he leaned his head on the door frame.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Sara apologized.  “I’ll stop teasing you.”  He looked at her.  “For now.  What I stopped by for was actually to take advantage of your beautiful mind.  I was doing some calculations for the hydroponics lab, and I want to make sure my figures are right and that I won’t run out of water or bulb hours or fertilizer.  It’ll suck if we get stuff growing and then it all dies because we don’t have anything left to tend the garden with.”

Josh smiled and latched onto this completely innocuous topic.  For the first time he noticed she carried a small notebook in her hand.  “True.  I want real orange juice eventually.”  He stepped back and allowed Sara to enter his room.  She handed him the note book and he sat at his desk.  Sara sat in the only place she could: his bed.  Josh didn’t let himself think about it much.  After all, it was the only place to sit and he was only interested in Marissa.  So even though he was going to be up here for a year and Sara was definitely much better looking than he’d led his fiancée to believe, he didn’t really think of Sara in that way.  Well, at least he hadn’t before now.  But even with the skimpy outfit, his thoughts were more on how other people would see it.

Josh started to do a check of Sara’s math, appalled by her atrocious handwriting.  But then, she _was_ a doctor.

“Hey, is this your fiancée?”

Josh glanced at Sara.  She’d lain back on his bed with her knees drawn up.  She was holding the picture frame up with both hands.

“Yes.  Her name is Marissa.”

“She’s pretty.”

“She’s beautiful.”

He heard Sara laugh softly at his response.  Then she said, “So…why were you looking at a picture of your _beautiful_ , scantily clad fiancée on your bed in nothing but your underwear?”

“I—”  Josh stopped his work and looked at her.  She raised a quick eyebrow at him and gave him a naughty smile.  “It’s not’s what you’re thinking,” he finished, flushing hot at the implication.

Sara turned to her side, putting the picture on the bed so she could look at it as she propped up her head on her hand via her elbow.  The position highlighted the perfect womanly curves of her body.  “I’m kind of jealous.  Not of her, but of you.  I wish I had somebody I was in love with.”

“You wouldn’t right now,” he said.  “I’m glad to be here, but I miss her so much.  It’d be easier if I didn’t have anyone waiting for me.  It’d be better to meet her after all of this is over.”

“Hmm.  I suppose.”  She was silent a couple of minutes and Josh worked on her math.  “No, actually, I think I am jealous of her.  Kung-fu you say?”

“Black belt.  Three times over.”

“Hn.”

“Okay.  I’m finished.  It all looks pretty good, but I don’t feel like you should ration it out exactly.  You should always have a surplus, just in case.”

Sara groaned as she got off the bed.  “But that means I have to redo the math.”

He handed her the notepad.  “I already did.”

“Josh.  You’ve gotta stop being nice.”

“Why?” he laughed as he stood up.

“Because you are way too hot to be that nice.  There’s got to be something wrong with you.”

“There is.”

“Oh, yeah?  What’s that?”

“Apparently I _am_ an alien molester.”

They both laughed and Sara put a hand to his chest.  Then she sobered as her fingers curled into the hard muscle she felt there.  She looked up into Josh’s eyes and then yanked her hand back at the same time he jerked his eyes away and coughed.

“Ah, ha ha.”  She laughed apologetically.

Josh shook his head.  “Sara.  It’s been seven days.  At least let it take a few months.”

She smiled embarrassedly.  “Sorry.  It’s just…been awhile.  If you know what I mean.”

He grinned meanly at her.  “Actually, I don’t.”

“Augh!  Whatever!”

Sara pushed the button to open his door and marched out with her corrected math.  Josh watched her stomp into her own room, forced into admitting he enjoyed the view, and then laughed.  Then he sighed sadly.  Actually, he did know what she meant.  He hadn’t seen Marissa for two months before the launch.  And he had another twelve to go.

He pushed the door close button and felt the whoosh of air over his whole body as the door slid home.  He really thought those things closed too fast and too hard, but no one would listen to him until somebody got caught in it.  It was only a matter of time.  He picked up the picture of Marissa from the bed and returned it to its place on his desk.  He sat down and looked at the pictures of his family: his parents smiling and covered in flour as they baked six dozen cookies for their annual Christmas Cookie Bake Off with the neighbors.  His two older sisters hugging his younger one at her bat mitzvah.  It had only been seven days.  Why was he so homesick?

He glanced at his clock.  It was only 19:50.  Much too early for bed.  He pulled out the laptop he had been assigned for monitoring the equipment in the base.  There was a wireless network throughout the base that enabled the crew members to check on the diagnostics of any piece of equipment from any location.  While they were assigned rotating duty for having to physically check on the equipment three times a day, all the crew members were instructed to periodically check the systems remotely.  This way there would be near constant monitoring and different sets of eyes looking at the results.  The hope was that this would give everyone the earliest warning possible if something did go wrong.  They couldn’t rely on the programming to tell them if something was wrong.  They essentially had to live like it wasn’t functioning at all.

Josh clicked through the different systems, checking the numerical values versus the meter readouts.  He could go one step further than everyone, except maybe Xiaodan, and actually calculate that the numerical value was correct based on the constantly cycling values the machinery put out as it worked.  It bothered him a little bit that the program rounded off the decimal a full two decimal places higher than he did, but otherwise his and the computer’s numbers matched.  He pondered on the legitimacy of their decuple check system.  They used their human brains to check for errors in case the computer failed to pick up on something, but their own calculations were all reliant on the computers giving them the proper readouts in the first place.  It seemed like either way the computers could screw them, so why bother checking it in the first place?  Just let the computer run it and hope for the best.

Josh leaned back in his chair and checked the time: 20:32.  It was still very early, but he might as well go to bed so he could wake up early and do his check on the life support and AG machinery first thing.  He went into his bathroom and brushed his teeth.  He still chuckled whenever he did, remembering the sheer amusement on Naya’s face when he realized what the item was for and what it was called.  Then he picked up his clothes from the floor and balled them up on his chair.  He pushed the chair as far under the desk as it would go.  If Tim did stop and poke his head in, he probably wouldn’t see it.  Josh slid into bed and tucked the sheets back under the mattress to try to prevent his leg from making its way over the edge again.  Then he leaned back, pulled the covers to his chin, and set the alarm for 0530 hours.  He flicked the light switch off and relaxed.  Then he heard the knock at the door.

Josh made a face and turned the light on as he sat up.  He couldn’t really complain too much; it wasn’t so late that he shouldn’t expect visitors.  He swung his legs out, but got tangled halfway.  He cursed and hopped as he stumbled out of bed and considered briefly putting on more clothes.  Quite possibly Sara had come back and was looking to see how far she could push him before he cried rape.  He missed the display button and pushed the door open button and blinked rapidly at the bright lights of the hallway.  Then he looked slightly down.  Naya smiled at him.

Josh was startled to see the alien alone.  He tried to discreetly lean forward just a little to confirm that he had no human escort.  Perhaps someone had let him in and then allowed him to wander around by himself?  Unlikely.  Had he come in with someone, Josh was certain that person would have stayed with him to his final destination.  They _had_ left the doors to the dressing room open, so technically, he supposed that was an open invitation to come over whenever they felt like it.  Did that mean the humans could also go visit their ship whenever they felt like it?  Well, he supposed they had never actually been invited to their ship, so maybe the reverse wasn’t true.

He was wearing what looked like to be the bottom half of his blue space suit, but the jacket was no longer attached.  He wore only the simple long-sleeved green shirt he’d been in earlier.  Which reminded Josh, again, that he was in nothing but his underwear.  Maybe he should stop answering the door without getting dressed.  He could tell the alien took notice of his clothing, his eyes actually lingered below his waist, just like Sara, but he managed to return his gaze to Josh’s face without prompting.  He smiled again.

Josh wasn’t nearly as worried about the unescorted alien as he thought he should be, but he smiled back anyway.

“Hi,” he said.  He was about to ask a pointless question since the alien couldn’t understand him, but then Naya spoke.

“Hello,” he said, slowly, carefully.

Josh raised his eyebrows, his smile growing wider.  “That’s great.  Barely even accented.  You just sound like you’re just a teeny bit…Australian.  Strangely enough.”

Naya tilted his head, trying to process Josh’s sentence.  Josh laughed.

“Don’t worry about it.  I—”

“Australian,” Naya repeated.

Josh stopped all current thoughts.  This was something new.  The aliens had rarely parroted anything back to them unless it was something very specific.  He hadn’t thought they’d been able to distinguish where one word ended and another started in the flow of regular conversation.

“Australian.  Is of a related term to the Commonwealth of Australia, and not the Republic of Austria.  Is this correct?”

Josh stared at the alien.  He easily understood the words the alien was speaking even though they were halting and fluctuating among an Australian, American, and British accent depending on the word.  Josh’s brain did manage to be annoyed by Command for not standardizing the pronunciation program they had provided the aliens.

“Am I not understandable?” Naya asked, looking disappointed.

“No,” Josh blurted out.  “I mean.  Yes, you are.  Perfectly.”  He stared at the pretty creature.  It just wasn’t possible.  Suddenly, Josh was the one who couldn’t speak English.  “H-how?” he managed to get out.

Naya smiled.  “The Program.”

Josh could hear the capital letter in the word.

“Do the peoples of Earth have a Program?”

Josh shook his head.  “Pretty sure not the kind you’re talking about.”  Josh half-laughed in disbelief.  “This is…not possible, Naya.  I can understand, _maybe_ , a computer figuring out the language, but how could you possibly learn it that fast?”

Naya shook his head.  “I did not do this.  It will take a passage of some time before I am fluent.  I must hear colloquialism, slang, and the meter of your speech.  As of now, I think.  The Program translates.  I repeat.”

“But, how?  Where?”  Josh looked over his body for some kind of device.

Naya looked confused.  “The Program,” he repeated.

“Yes, but where is it?”

Naya looked at him like he didn’t understand what he was trying to ask.  Then he pointed to his head.  Josh reached out a hand and grasped his shoulder, turning him slightly so he could see if there were any wires going to his head or a Bluetooth device or something.  He saw that Naya had braided his thin hair and the bottom reached the nape of his neck, where the…thing…had been.  It was covered by a tightly fitting piece of metal.  It was so tight in fact that Josh could see that his skin was puckered where the metal bit in.

“Oh.  I’m sorry.  Is that because of me?”

Naya reached back and touched the metal piece.

“Yes.  And no.  What occurred during the day of an earlier time was of no fault of yours.  I should have been using this guard already.”

“Guard?” Josh questioned.

“Does not the word ‘guard’ mean ‘protect?’”

“Yes.  But, protect from what?”

Naya smiled and looked away.  His cheeks shimmered a little.  “Public pleasure touching.”

“Oh, right,” Josh laughed embarrassedly.  “Sorry about that.”

Naya tilted his head in thought.  “Pleasure touching is a bad translation.  ‘Sex,’ however, is not either accurate.”

Josh bit back a smile.  “Foreplay?” he murmured softly.

“Repeat that?”

“I’d rather not.”

Naya frowned at him.

Josh sighed with a smile.  “I said ‘foreplay.’  How does that translate?”

“Sexual stimulation, usually as a prelude to sexual intercourse.”

Josh put a hand to his face, feeling a blush coming on.  He watched Naya process the definition he had just pulled up.

“Ai,” he said.  “Yes.  That was a good translation.”

Josh laughed and passed a hand over his face.  “So.  Sorry about that.”

“No!” Naya said forcefully, startling Josh.  “It is I who must…to you.  It was my atrocity.”

“Atrocity?’ Josh questioned.  “That is too harsh of a word.”

Naya thought.  “No, it is not.”

“Then you guys must be pretty strict about sex.  Sure it was a little embarrassing, but it wasn’t that bad.  Plus, I shouldn’t have gone touching you in places that could be private.”

Josh watched Naya’s eyes blink as he assumed the Program was translating as fast as it could.

“Not strict…per se.”  Naya shook his head.  “Is that English word?”

“Yes and no.  I understand it.”

“Not strict.  Ai, maybe strict.  Not…Puritan?”  He made a confused face at the word the Program had picked out for him.  “We are…full of protocol.”

“Ah, I think I see,” said Josh.  “You don’t think sex is bad, but there are rules to follow.”

Naya listened and nodded.  “Yes, yes.  That is right.  Are you like that?”

“Me?”

“Your race.”

“Oh, well, that’s complicated.  It depends on who you talk to.”

“But you cannot foreplay in the public’s presence.  Correct?”

“Generally, no,” Josh said with a laugh.

“Then, I must.”

Naya peeled off a glove and took Josh’s hand.  He crossed just the tops of their fingers together, and then flexed them quickly so that they moved against, and then away, from each other.  The alien looked very contrite and solemn, but Josh didn’t know what the hand thing was.  So, he asked.

“What’s with the hand things?”

“I do not understand ‘hand things.’”

“What is the gesture you made with your hands?”

“Ain.”  Naya looked a little distressed.  “It is how we speak without speaking.”

Josh thought about that for a second.  “Okay.”

“Do you not know what I say?”

“How can I if you don’t say it?”

“We do not say this word out loud.  It is…bad luck.”

“Oh.  Can you spell it?”

Naya wrung his hand together and then leaned forward.  He whispered very, very softly, “Sorry.”

“Oh.  I got ya.”  Josh took Naya’s hand and tried the motion with him again.  “That means…that word.  So you don’t have to say it aloud.”

Naya nodded.

Josh smiled.  “You have nothing to be sor—that—about.  It was my fault, really.”

“It will be prevented as best capable,” Naya said.

“Yeah, but…doesn’t that thing hurt?”

“Yes.”

“Then…why wear it?  We won’t touch you there anymore.  Promise.”  Josh crossed his heart with his finger.

“It is improper to display the…”  Naya paused, and waited.  Then he gave a small shrug.  “You have no equivalent.”  Naya crossed his heart with his finger.  “What is this motion?”

“A promise.  You cross your heart and hope to die.  Stick a needle in your eye.”

Naya made a face.  “Why?”

“Because it is bad to betray someone’s trust.”

“So you agree to expire?”

“Only if you break your word.  Of course, it is a children’s rhyme.”

“It has no meaning for adults?”

“We promise in a different way.”

“Without death?”

“Usually, but not always.”

“I think I am confused due to the word ‘promise’ not translating.”

“You don’t have promises?” Josh asked with a raise of his eyebrows.

“The Program is feeding me syn-na-mens?”

“Cinnamon?”

“That is a spice?”

“Yes.”

“No.  The same words.”

“Oh, synonyms.”

“That is a hard word.”

“It is,” Josh agreed.

“The syn-o-nyms—have too many different meanings.  The definition is not possible.”

“Not possible?”

“To say that something _will_ be done.  No one can know this.”

“Can know what?”

“That something—anything—will be done because a person says so.  Anything could make it not so before it happens.  Then, the ‘promise’ will be broken.  Regardless of a person’s purpose.”

“That’s true, I suppose.”

“Then why promise?”

“I guess, to show our good intentions.  Or bad intentions,” Josh mused.

“Intentions.  I do not like that word either.”

Josh smiled.  “Humans don’t really like it either.”

“Humans,” Naya repeated the word.  “That is, different from people?”

“It is our species.”

“Ai.  I comprehend.  Do—”

“Wait,” Josh said, “do you want to come inside and sit?  We can talk more comfortably that way.”

“I agree.  I awaited your invitation.”

Josh felt a little dig at his upbringing at that.  Perhaps it wasn’t rude to point out when someone was being rude in his culture.  Josh stepped back and swept an arm inside.

“Please, come in.”

Naya stepped through and looked around the room again.  He turned and looked at Josh.  He quickly moved to his desk chair and threw his ball of clothes into the bathroom.  He offered the seat to Naya.  He sat down gingerly, unsure of the leather cushion.  Josh took a seat on his bed, deliberately leaving the door open to the hallway.

“What is ‘please?’” Naya asked.

Josh almost laughed.  “Seriously?  You guys don’t have please and thank you?”

Naya listened, and then shook his head and put his hands up.  “We don’t say that word aloud either.”

“Which one?”

Naya got up and took Josh’s hand.  Then he twined their fingers the way he had done with Sara in the hydroponics lab.

“You can’t say thank you?” Josh asked when Naya returned to his chair.  “How is that bad luck?”

“Not bad luck.  Impolite.”

“Well, it’s impolite in our culture not to thank someone when they do something for us.”

“It’s not impolite to thank.  It is impolite to say it.”

“Oh.  Why?”

“Ain…” Naya sighed.  “It is…acknowledgement…that something had to be done.  It is…condescending.”

“Ah, I see.”

“What can you see?”

“I see is the same as ‘I comprehend.’”

“Ai.  I see,” he said with a smile.

Josh laughed softly.  “So, no please?”

“What is please?”

“I guess, when we do need something done for us, we like to make it a request and not a demand.  So, we don’t say, ‘Give me that,’ we say ‘Please give me that.’”

“And the latter is more polite than the former?”

“Yes.”

“Ai.  I see.  Switch topic.  Ai.  Please switch topic.”

Josh put a hand over his mouth to hide his laugh and nodded.

“You are humans?”

“Yes.  Our species, _Homo sapiens_.  We call ourselves humans.  Colloquially.  What are you called?”

“Ai.  We have no ‘humans.’  We have species.  ‘Jainen.’  We are Cresenlens.  It is our…”  Naya made a face.  “Too many words.  Community?  Confederation?  Nationality?”

“Ah.  So…Cresenlen is what people from your country are called?”

“No, our planet.”

“Oh.  Then, in that case, we are Earthlings.”

“Earthlings.  Yes.  Cresenlen is most closely to Earthling.”  Josh smiled.  “But not.”

Josh laughed and groaned at the same time.  “The fact that you understand our language is great, but I still feel like we’re not understanding each other.”

Naya nodded.  “True.  I am confused by ‘our language.’  So, it is common?”

“Common?”

“Universal.”  Naya smiled.  “That is an egotistic word.”

Josh laughed.  “I suppose it is.  Um, English is the most widely spoken language on Earth, but it’s not spoken by everybody.”

“How is that possible?”

“What do you mean?”

“How can humans communicate without a common language?”

“Well, that has been a source of trouble for our planet for as long as language has existed.  They all developed independently of each other.”

“Then why not make one?  Force one?”

“That’s a little complicated.”

“A lot is complicated for your planet?”

“Well, yeah.  Isn’t it the same for you?”

Naya tilted his head.  “Not for…common sense items.  The Program takes care.”

Josh smiled.  “I don’t think humans would take very kindly to obeying a computer overlord.”

It took Naya a moment to process that sentence.  Then he laughed.

“Wrong, wrong,” he said, almost singing the words.  “Just a misunderstanding.”

“Or maybe that’s what the Program _wants_ you to believe.”

Naya laughed again.  “We control the Program.  Not the other way around.”

“Or maybe the Program makes you _think_ you’re in control.”

Naya grinned.  “It might.  How would we know?”

Josh smiled.  “I guess you wouldn’t.  It doesn’t bother you that it might?”

“I do not think the Program would let us be concerned about such things if it is in control.”

“True again.  So…this Program…is it…in your head?  Like implanted?”

“Ain.  There is a microchip, yes.”

“Oh, God, are you cyborgs?”

Naya shook his head, like something funny had buzzed in his ear.  “Cyborg.  I have an ‘electric device,’ but my ‘physiological functioning’ is not ‘aided or dependent upon’ it.  I turn on the Program and use it like you turn on and use ‘Snap Dragon.’”

Josh was surprised and a little embarrassed that Naya mentioned the inane computer game that was the current craze.  Had he looked through his whole iPad?  He cleared his throat.

“Yes, well, Snap Dragon is a very complex building simulation—”

“It is a game.”  Josh stopped his explanation and looked at the alien.  “I played it.  I have Top Score.”

“Aah!” Josh let out a high-pitched noise of dismay.

“We digress.  I need to ask about the ‘small chip.’  It is not the same as the kind you eat, yes?”

“Potato chips?  Ha, no.  Completely different.”

“Then why use the same word?”

“I guess we’re uninventive.”

“But you have fifteen words for every other meaning.  Why use one word for fifteen different meanings?”

Josh made a slightly embarrassed face.  “No one would ever say that English is a language that makes sense.”

“I concur,” the Cresenlen said.  “I also agree.”  He gave Josh a teasing smile.

Josh laughed.  “You’re funny.  I didn’t know computer programs had a sense of humor.”

“I am not a computer.”

“You don’t know that.”

Naya made a face.  “It can be turned off.  The Program is not…self-aware.”  He made a nervous face.  “Not yet.  But we worry.”

Josh laughed.  “That’s awesome!  Do you have any idea how many movies we have that are all about how some AI is going to rise up and kill its human creators?  Good to know the fear is _universal_.”

“AI?”

“Artificial Intelligence.”

“Ai.  You make movies about bad AI’s?”

“Yes.  You make movies too?”

“Of course.  We must have something to do on the days we do not work.”

Josh laughed and fell back on his bed.  “That’s so great.  You guys have a TGIF too?”

“What is TGIF?”

“Thank Goodness It’s Friday.”

“Friday is a day of your calendar?”

“Yes.  The first day of the weekend.”

“Weekend does not translate.”

Josh sighed.  “And, it’s gone.”  He sat up and looked at the alien.  “Who’s the most popular movie star on your planet right now?”

“Movie…star?”

“Tell the Program to combine the words and search for a definition.”

“Oh.  Oh, I see.  Juna Kio Cresenlen.”

Josh laughed softly.  It was so cool that Naya could interface with the Program like that.

“Is that a male or female?” Josh asked.

“Male.  Is Sara a male or a female?” he asked suddenly.

“Sara is female,” Josh grinned.

“So, you are male?”

“Yes.”  Josh tried not to laugh.  He’d never had anyone question his gender before.  Not even when he and his fellow physics geeks had dressed in drag and crashed a frat party.  In fact, that had made it more painfully obvious that he was indeed a man.  “How about you?” he asked the alien.

“Male.  By my species’ distinction.  But, I feel we…procreate differently.”

“Oh, we definitely do.  At least, our G-spots aren’t on our necks.”

“G-spots?”

Josh waved a hand.  “I’m not explaining that one.  Though, I suppose for some people, it could be on their necks.”

“So, your…”  Naya lowered his voice.  “Veen.”  He spoke normally again.  “Is not always in the place that is your neck?”

“Can you not translate ‘veen,’” Josh whispered the word too.

Naya shook his head.  “Nothing comes close.  Except…potentially…”  He shimmered in embarrassment.  “Can I say this word?”

Josh shrugged.  “We’re just two guys.  It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, but, this part is for your females.  So…I am female to humans?”

“Well, that’s still up for debate.  Tell me, what is your ‘veen?’”

“Your word is clitoris.”

Josh blushed.  “Ah.  Oh.  Um.”  He covered his face with a hand.  “I see.”  He peeked out between his fingers.

Naya’s whole face shimmered.  “I asked if it was okay to say it!”

“I know!  I’m sor—it’s fine.  It is.  In private conversations.  With someone you feel comfortable with.”

Naya pushed his chair closer.  “Are we comfortable?”

“Well, perhaps not as well as I thought.  But, that’s my fault.  I’m…sensitive.”

Naya took off his other glove and reached for Josh’s face.  Josh held still, feeling his blush worsen.

“Your skin is warmer than usual.”

“It’s what we do…like when you shimmer.”

“Shimmer?  Ain, dala.  Physical reaction to embarrassment.”

Josh nodded.

“I did not mean to discomfit you.  Perhaps I am like your female then.”

“Um…I actually don’t think so.  I think you’re male.  You seemed to have learned the definition of male and female and translated it to your language.  And it came out male, right?”

Naya waffled his hand in the air.  “Not perfectly.  Your definition is dependent on the type of your chromosome.  That is best way to determine such things, yes?  But your naming convention does not match ours.  As for matching sexual organs, it seems unlikely that will help either.  Your terms of ‘sperm’ and ‘egg’ are very specific to your genders, but I do not think there is a true difference as both are labeled by the name ‘gamete.’  Is there something that males and females do differently?”

“Well, our sexual organs are different.”

“But their functions do not compare to ours.”

“Ah, I see.  Hmm.  Oh!  The females are the ones that carry and give birth to the babies.”

“Birth?”  Naya paused as he allowed his Program to sort through the English dictionary in his head.  This was so bizarre, Josh contemplated.  He watched Naya’s eyes jump back and forth, almost like he was reading.  Then he looked at Josh and laughed.  “Birth.  We have creatures on our planet that do that.  The animal holds the offspring and expels it alive.”

“Yeah…”

“Yes, we have those.  They are small, covered with fur, and have big ears and long tails.”

Josh blinked at the alien.  “Rats?” he asked.

“Your dictionary did not come with images.  But…‘rat’ may match.”

“Awesome.  So, we’re rats on your planet?”

“No.  They are small.  And not intelligent.”

“Do you consider us intelligent?”

“Us is who?”

“My species.”

“Oh, yes.  Your technology is…different.  But you are intelligent.”

Josh gave the alien a friendly suspicious glare.  “You were going to say ‘primitive,’ weren’t you?”

Naya shrugged.

Josh shifted on the bed to sit against the wall.  “So, what were we talking about?” he asked.

“The difference between male and female.”

“Ah, yes.  So, in our species, the women give birth.  What does your species do?”

“We hatch.”

Josh laughed softly.  “Out of eggs?”

“I do not like your definition of ‘egg.’  It is much too broad.  But, yes, as with your own language, things ‘hatch’ from ‘eggs.’”

Josh conceded that point.  “Are they big eggs or little eggs?”

Naya held out his hands around an invisible object that looked to be about the size of a basketball.

Josh whistled low.  “That’s pretty small.  The babies are small compared to adults?”

“Are not yours?”

“They are, but not that small.  Are your babies…underdeveloped?  Or.  I mean.  How much care do they need?”

“Much.  All the time.  For at least one half of a year.  Ain…almost one and a half years of your calendar.”

“W-what?  Is that all?  Or, is that a lot.  What is your definition of ‘baby’ versus child?  And one half of your year equals one and a half years of ours?”

Naya stopped to think, or let the Program work.  “Our star is bigger than yours.  Our planet is a greater distance from our star.  Our year, which is one rotation of the star, just like you, takes the matched time of three years of your time.  Approximately.”

“How about your day?”

“One full day, a rotation of our planet about the axis, is thirty hours…approximately (I like this word)…ninety of your hours.”

Josh’s jaw dropped.  “Seriously?”

 Naya looked confused.  “I am truth telling.  Though not stern in my answer.”

“Oh, no.  Seriously, in this context, is like saying ‘really.’  It means someone is asking for confirmation because they can’t quite believe what you’re saying.”

“Ai.  Dala.  Yes, I am seriously.”

“No, just ‘seriously.’  Or ‘I am serious.’”

Naya nodded.  “Yes.  Thirty hours in a day.  Fifteen days in a week.  Five weeks in a month.   Seventy-five days in a month.  Forty-five weeks in a year.  Six hundred and seventy-five days in a year.  These terms are approximations to yours.  They are close, but not completely true.  ‘Month’ is disparate.  We have more than one satellite.”

Josh was about to reply that they had multiple satellites as well, and then realized he was talking about moons.  “Oh, okay.  We should compare calendars.”

“Yes,” Naya agreed.

Josh looked him over for a moment and then had to ask, “So…what is the average life span of your species…in your years?”

“Average?  Ain…One hundred twenty to one hundred forty of our years.”

Josh stared at the alien.  They lived, on average, five times longer than humans.  “How old are you?” Josh breathed, barely able to speak the words.

“Taiso!” the alien admonished teasingly.  Josh could tell it was an admonishment based on his tone, but knew that it was teasing because he smiled.  “That is not an item we discuss!”

“Why?  Is it impolite?  Maybe you are a woman.”

“It is bad luck to speak of one’s life span.”

“You guys don’t celebrate your birthdays?  Or, hatch-days?”

“Of course.  We celebrate new life.”

“But I mean, every year on the same day you were hatched, you don’t have a party?”

“No.  That would be arrogant.”

“Hunh.  I guess it’s different for us.  We have such short lives we’re grateful to be alive.”

“Short?  So…what is the average life span of your species…in your years?”  Naya copied Josh’s question right down to the phrasing.

Josh smiled.  The alien had even copied his accent, so that it came out sounding American with just the slightest twinge of a Texas drawl.  “Once again, that is something that is complicated for our planet.  Depending on where one lives, the average is different.  But, in general, if someone is healthy and has access to modern medicine, our life span is only about seventy-five years or so.  Which is only…twenty five of your years.”

Naya looked surprised.  “That is a short life.  I wonder if I could…fix you.”

Josh smiled.  “And then keep me.  Like a pet?”

The faintest shimmer sparkled across his cheek bones, but he smiled.  “Maybe.”

They were quiet for several moments.  Then Naya pulled the sleeve of his shirt back to look at the underside of his right wrist.  Josh could just see a flat panel and moving lights.  Maybe they did have iPads implanted in them.  Not a hard leap now after knowing he had a chip in his brain.

Naya sighed.  “Ben is requesting my return.  I was to come to…”  Naya made a face.  “Apologize,” he said softly.  “And then go straight back.”

“Apologize for what?”

“The incident.”

“Oh, that.”  Josh waved a hand.  “Consider it forgotten.  Though the others might be annoying about it for a while.”

“I accept that.  We can talk more tomorrow, yes?”

“Yes, of course.  I’m sure the others will be ecstatic to talk to you too.”

“I…the Program says ‘look forward,’ but that seems wrong.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I ‘look forward’ to speaking with Sara.”

“That’s right.”

“Is there a certain way to speak to females?”

“Not really.  Just, don’t mention your ‘veen’ to her.”

Naya made a noise that was a mixture of disgust and annoyance.  But he didn’t shimmer.  Josh smiled.  Maybe they were getting more comfortable with each other.  Naya stood up and Josh did too.

“Ben may not talk much,” Naya said.

“Really?  He seems so talkative.”

“Does he?”  Naya looked confused.

“You don’t have sarcasm in your world?”

“Sarcasm…ain.  I got ya.”

Josh repressed a laugh as the alien mimicked his speech.  Perhaps he should only use proper English around them for now.  He walked Naya the two and a half steps to the door and said, “You know your way back?”

“I’m not sure.  That way or that way.  How will I find the way?”

Naya had pointed down the opposite ends of the hallway, which were of course a giant circle and either way would lead him to the docking bay.

“Sarcasm?” Josh asked dryly.

Naya smiled.  And then said, “Ai!  What is your name in entirety?”

“My entire name?  Uh, Joshua.”

“Josh.  Ew-ah.  Is Ew-ah your home nest?”

“Huh?  Oh, no.  My first name is Joshua.”

“Then Josh is…”

“A nickname.  Or, just a shortened version.”

“Ain, I find the definition.  We do not use those.”

“Oh.  So, I can’t call you Nai?”

Naya blinked at him.  “Do not.  Ai.  Please do not.”

Josh nodded and laughed.  “Okay.”

“Humans only use one name?”

“Oh, oh, I got it.  My full name is Joshua Emmanuel Meltzer.  Joshua is my given name.  What my parents named me.  My middle name is not something all humans use, but my family wanted me to have two names even though I only use one.  If that makes sense.”

“It does not.”

Josh shook his head with a smile and decided to continue on.  “Meltzer is my surname.  It is the name all the members of my family have.”

Naya nodded.  “That is all the information?”

“Yes.  Most people just have given and surnames.  What is your full—entire—name?”

“Naya Kankay Cresen.  Naya is like Josh.  It is given.  Kankay is like surname.  It is the mother surname and the father surname combined in one.  Mothers and fathers make new names when they procreate.”

“Hn.  Interesting.  And Cresen, that is your planet, right?”

Naya shook his head.  “Planet is named Pon as Veeya.  Cresen is my home nest.  Where I hatched.”

“But…aren’t all the people of your planet called Cresen-lens?”

“Yes.”

“Um…I’m a little confused.”

“In the long past, we had different…nations?  We had different ways.  Different language.  The Program said we should make one.  The Program chose Cresenlen language and ways…culture?  We are all Cresenlen.  Though,” he looked somewhat abashed, “we have difficulty forgetting…borders.  Those hatched in old Cresen are…snobby?”  He laughed.  “That is a funny sounding word.”

“Snobby?  You guys add Cresen to your names just to piss everybody else off?”

Naya shook his head.  “The second half of your sentence does not—”

“Make people angry.”

“Ai.  No, no.  Cresen is the city where I hatched.  It is the current capital city of Pon as Veeya and the old capital city of Cresen the nation.  But, Cresen the nation does not exist.  We use the home nest to help identify.  Some people have the same name.  Is that not the same of humans?”

“Oh, yes, we do.  Quite often actually.”

“Yes.  Home nest is one more identifier.  Example is my sibling.  Maisa Kankay Tarlm.  That sibling was hatched while the mother was…taking a visit.”

Josh laughed.  “I see.  But, is she…he…a Cresenlen using the old borders too?”

“Yes.  She—I think ‘she’—is Cresenlen.  Ben is Ben Sunvel Linksoda.  Linksoda is a large, beautiful city.  But it is outside of Cresen the nation’s old borders.”

“So, he’s a hick?”

Naya cocked his head.

Josh waved a hand.  “Never mind.”

“I think you mean, am I snobby to him?”

Josh shrugged a shoulder.  Naya grinned.

“Sometimes.  But the Program does not like us to remember those differences.”

“So, is this Program—”

“Aishz, mnza.”  Naya checked his wrist again.  “I must return.  Ben is unhappy about me.”

“Hey, tell him he’s got nothing to be embarrassed about.  Neither of you do, okay?  I really hope we can put it behind us and continue developing our relationships.”

Naya nodded.  “I mean to tell him.  What is humans’ first hour to awaken?”

“Well, we awaken pretty early.  But, our days are so short, will that not disturb your sleep cycle?”

“Not too much.  Three of your hours is sufficient for first sleep.”

“First…sleep?”

Naya deflated a little and smiled bemusedly.  “Does our sleep not match either?”

Josh smiled.  “Looks like it.  Here.”  Josh grabbed his watch off his desk and showed it to Naya.  He tapped on the numbers from the nine once all the way to the six.  “We will be up—awake—by then.”

“You sleep for so long?” the alien asked incredulously.

Josh laughed.  “No.  Not usually.  I was going to bed early.  Humans usually sleep about eight hours.  Sometimes less, sometimes more.”

“Eight hours, in the one sleep?”

“Yes.”

“How do you keep awake the other sixteen hours?”

Josh chuckled.  “Some of us don’t.  But eight hours is usually enough for us to function the rest of the day.  Of course, our days are short compared to yours.”

“But not the perspective of you.”

“I guess.  Tell me, do you sleep in order for—”

“Aishz!” the alien shouted.  He rolled up his sleeve and quickly ran a finger over the panel on his wrist.  He looked at Josh.

“You’ve gotta go?” Josh asked with a smile.

“Apparently ‘annoyance’ is universal also.”

Josh laughed.  “Well, goodnight then.”

“Ai!”  Josh started as the alien put two fingers over his lips.  They felt smooth, warm, and just slightly unsettlingly scaly.  “That is bad luck.”

Josh shrugged his shoulder but didn’t dare try to speak with the alien’s fingers on his lips.  Naya dropped his hand down and twined the fingers of their left hands together.  It didn’t require any special knowledge on Josh’s part.  It just felt like a normal handhold with interlaced fingers.  Then Naya smiled, and departed.

Josh looked at his hand.  “Goodnight,” he said softly, hoping the alien’s hearing wasn’t so good that he heard it.  These hand gestures and rules for what one could not say were interesting.  He wondered who decided these things.  The Program?  That seemed unlikely.  Luck wasn’t something a computer understood.  A god of some kind?  He’d like to know, but perhaps he should save broaching the subject of religion until they all knew each other a little bit better.  Josh stepped back into his room and shut the door.  Boy were all the others in for a shock in the morning.


	7. Incomplete: The First Lie

Sara leaned against the shower wall and let the lukewarm water blast her skin so hard it was like getting a free exfoliation treatment at a fancy day spa.  The idea was to use a shower head with such a narrow opening that it conserved water, but the result was a jet stream that reddened her skin and tangled her shoulder length hair.  Right now though she was just using it to wake herself up and force away the residual images from the dream that had kept drawing her back into sleep.  It hadn’t exactly been a restful dream, but it had been pleasant.  And had prominently featured a certain mixed race physicist who for the sake of her sanity needed to remain nameless.  She sighed again, remembering his hands and trying to shake that memory at the same time.  She hadn’t felt nearly as guilty about lusting after him during the first month of training.  She’d been raised to appreciate good-looking men, and that’s all he was.  Or what he had been.  Then she’d gotten to know him.  And the irony was, she couldn’t stand people like him.  Always cheerful, always the peacemaker, responsible, a good boy, younger than she, capable of calculating the square root of thirty-seven multiplied by pi rounded to ten decimals in his head in under five seconds.  That last one really is the one that got to her.

She opened her eyes and then squinted as the water misted up into them from the hard spray.  What had she been thinking about again?  Oh, yes, the fact that she had very stupidly and irresponsibly half fallen in love with Josh Meltzer.  She groaned.  Crap.  She’d used his name.  She was going to need to get herself under control.  Last night had been appallingly bad behavior on her part.  Though it had also proven that he _was_ attracted to her.  And so what if he was?  Was she really going to ruin his life by trying to induce him into having an affair with her?  Another six months of celibacy and she might not rule it out.  Maybe she should exhaust all her options before she started openly seducing the poor kid.  But what _were_ her options?  Tim, Jim, and Naoki were all married.  Xiaodan had a serious, long term girlfriend.  Hannah wasn’t nearly attractive enough to tempt her to swing.  Evegeny was just too ugly.  She loved him to death, but it was impossible to be attracted to someone you weren’t.  Just like Alexei was pretty, even better looking than Josh, but his noxious personality was nearly impossible to overlook.  Which left Sanjay.  He was cute.  But a little too dry and withdrawn for her tastes.  Plus there was the added fact that it wasn’t just about the sex.  It was about the sheer idiocy of letting her feelings for Josh cross over from amused affection to…well to feeling happy and excited every single damn time she saw him.  She thought back on the picture of his fiancée: super cute, fantastic body, exotic features.  She idly wondered if he’d ever dated white girls before.

The shower shut off.

Sara swore and let her head drop back.  She hadn’t washed her body let alone her hair.  This seven minute shower thing had to go.  Maybe once they’d been there a month or two they could determine how well the water recycler was doing and reevaluate the rations.  She now felt validated in blowing some of her savings on the laser hair removal she’d had done on her legs and underarms.  No woman could get everything she needed to get done in seven minutes.  This base had obviously been designed by a man.  And a science fiction nerd at that.

The frosted glass door of the shower slid only halfway back and then got stuck on its track.  Most of the others were having similar problems with their shower doors, but hers was the only one that barely got open wide enough for her to squeeze through.  The bathrooms were the worst part of the whole moon base experience.  They were barely big enough to turn around in and the commode was crammed in a box approximately the same size as an airplane lavatory.  The only two real benefits were the ventilation system which kept the bathroom and consequently the bedroom from becoming sticky with humidity, and the warming tiles on the floor.  She squeezed through the door and stepped onto those tiles now, enjoying the gentle warmth that massaged and soothed her feet.

She looked at herself in the tiny mirror of the medicine cabinet.  Her face was heart-shaped with soft, delicate angles and a straight nose that’s point saved her from the button nose that afflicted her four sisters.  Afflicted.  That was her mother’s word.  The words her mother used to describe Sara were milky white skin, thick honey blonde hair, and cornflower blue eyes.  She’d been told by her mother that she’d wasted her life going into medicine.  She could have been Miss Canada.  She frowned at her reflection.  Is this what a home wrecker looked like?  She did vaguely resemble her mother.  Who had been married six times, three of those times to men she had started seeing when they’d been married to other women.

Sara dropped her eyes and braced her hands on the sink.  It wouldn’t be like it would be the first time she had pursued an unavailable man.  She was just refraining from doing so now because she actually liked the guy.  She had a feeling that if Josh cheated on his fiancée, it would destroy some vital part of him from which he wouldn’t be able to recover.  Sara shook herself and grabbed a washcloth.  She soaped it up and washed the crucial parts as best she could using the sink.  What was she doing thinking about Josh anyway?  She was on the moon, doing groundbreaking research, and there were aliens parked outside.

There was nothing she could do about her hair but pull it up into a ponytail.  She didn’t think anyone would be able to notice it wasn’t shower fresh.  Or that anyone would care if they did.  She brushed her teeth and took a few moments to ponder what she would wear.  She supposed she should still wear a uniform for now.  They really needed to talk to Tim about this whole military vibe he had going on.  Only he and Jim were holdovers from the age when the air force supplied all the NASA astronauts.   She sighed and pulled on the unflattering navy blue pants, white dress shirt, and navy blue jacket.  She checked her watch: 0615 hours.  Time to go communicate with some aliens.  Another day at the office.

On her way around the white tunnels of the exteriors walls, she passed by Tim who had probably been up since five o’clock making sure his command was shipshape.  He nodded gravely to her and she almost saluted him, but she knew he wouldn’t find that funny.  She decided to detour to the hydroponics lab before getting breakfast and hung a quick right down the long, straight hallway of the science wing.  She wanted to measure some lettuce sprouts; she was convinced they were growing as well and healthily as if they were on Earth.  She was looking forward to having a salad soon.

As she walked down the long straight hall, Sara saw that Jim was already up and in the telescope lab, checking the equipment.  He was a mechanical engineer, but Sara knew that he had a secret fantasy to discover a new galaxy or planet and name it after his daughter.  Across the hall Alexei was in the “physics” lab.  That lab was filled with all kinds of super computers and lasers and weird contraptions that people like Josh actually tittered about when they tried to explain what they did.  Alexei was on a stool, leaning on an arm as he stared at a computer monitor.  One leg swung gently where it hung a couple of inches off the floor.  Sara paused to look at him.  He was vain, so of course he worked out to keep his body nice and toned.  His face was just barely on the masculine side of beauty and probably what saved him was that he wore his dark hair cut very short.  He had hazel eyes that often shifted colors depending on his surroundings.  She looked at his hand as he used one finger to push a button and scroll through the screen on the monitor.  His hands were large, but they were elegant with long, graceful fingers.  She considered thinking about what those beautiful hands were capable of, but she couldn’t quite separate those hands from the conceited, mocking voice that almost always accompanied them.  No, Alexei was not an option.

Sara continued on to the end of the hall and turned the shallow angle that partially hid the hydroponics lab door.  She swiped her card key and the door unlocked immediately.  That was a good sign; the conditions were maintaining optimum.  She immersed herself in the routine tasks of checking water levels, soil pH, and leaf health.  She really didn’t have much education or training when it came to botany, but everyone agreed she knew more than anyone else on the crew, so she was assigned as the primary caretaker.  She hadn’t been excited about it initially, but the last few days she’d actually found it fun to spend time in “nature.”  Or as close to nature as any of them were going to get for a year.  It also served as a great distraction.  She didn’t think about Josh once except for when her thoughts had wandered to how she was going to get everyone into the med bay for their initial baseline check.  And even then her thoughts of him had only been clinical in nature.  Mostly.

“Sara!”

Sara screamed and dropped the spray bottle she was using to wet down some herbs.  She turned to look at the door and saw Hannah waving an arm at her and breathing so shallowly Sara knew she was about to hyperventilate.

“Sara!  Sara!  They’re—”

Sara got to Hannah just as her vision started to go spotty and her knees weakened.  She propped the woman up and demanded that she breathe.  Hannah seemed to hear her instructions because she started breathing deeper, and did not completely pass out.  She got her feet under her again and stood up.  Sara was relieved to see color return to her white face.

“Hannah, what happened?  Is someone hurt?”

“They’re—they’re here.”

Hannah was shaking and pawing nervously as Sara’s arm.  Sara frowned at her.

“What are you talking about?”

Hannah turned wild eyes on her.  “ _Them_.  They came over.”

Sara blinked.  “Naya and Ben?”

“Yes.  I went to go check to see if there were any messages from command, then I cut through the docking bay to go to the kitchen.  And they were there.  In the docking bay.  I couldn’t find anyone.  I’ve been looking all over!”

Sara sighed in aggravation.  “Did you just leave them there?”

“Yes!  What was I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, say hi?”

“Sara.  I don’t know why everyone is so okay with this!  They are aliens!  They could have weapons and evil plans.  And microbes, Sara.  Foreign microbes.”

Sara didn’t bother to dignify that with a response.  She walked over to the spray bottle she’d dropped and gave the rest of the herbs a quick mist before putting her “gardening” equipment away.  Then she returned to Hannah and gave her a displeased look.

“All right, let’s go.”

Hannah let out small sigh of relief.  They left the lab and Sara commented, “You know, if you’re really worried about them having nefarious plans, you shouldn’t have left them alone.”

“Well, it’s not like I could stop them if they did!”

“And you think I can?”

“No, but I don’t want to be alone.”

As they passed the labs, she saw that Jim and Alexei were still working on their personal projects.

“Hannah, you passed by two people on the way to finding me.  Why didn’t you ask them?”

“Because Alexei is an asshole and Jim is even more scared of them than I am.”

Sara had to admit that she was right on both points.  She knocked on both of the doors to get the men’s attention and pointed down the hall.  Hopefully they could figure out they had company on their own.  Sara took the right branch of the circle in order to swing by the kitchen on the way to the docking bay.  Hannah nearly had a panic attack, but Sara ignored her and got a granola bar.  In order to placate her, she took it to go.  She chewed thoughtfully on her Chocolate n’ Oats bar and tuned out Hannah’s incessant nervous chatter.  They stepped through the AG fail point and Sara had to catch her wrapper out of the air as it tried to float to the ceiling.  They walked by the mechanical equipment room and Hannah practically clothes lined Sara as she pointed into the window.

“Oh, there’s Josh!  Let’s get him.  He’s good with them.”

Sara frowned at her co-worker.  She would actually prefer Hunter’s bipolar moodiness to Hannah’s neurosis.  And Hunter would have made a decent alternative to chasing after Josh.  After all, they’d gotten in some practice when she was still on Earth.  Hannah flung open the door.

“Josh!”

Josh started violently and dropped his clipboard.  He turned around and looked like he was preparing to get jumped on.

“What?” he asked, actually flinching in fear.

“They’re here!” Hannah shouted.  “We need you.”

Josh relaxed and looked to Sara for help interpreting Hannah’s request.

“Apparently Naya and Ben are already here.”

Josh glanced at his watch and Sara looked him over.  He was wearing his navy blue uniform too, but they were designed for men’s bodies.  It nicely showed off, and slightly exaggerated, his broad shoulders and narrow waist.

“Well, I did tell them 6:00am.  I guess an hour is reasonable to expect us to be ready.”

He bent down to pick up the clipboard and finish off his check of the equipment.

“Aren’t you coming?!” Hannah asked desperately.

“Yeah, hang on, I’m almost done.”

“Why did you spaz out so much when Hannah yelled at you?” Sara asked around a bite of granola bar.

“Wouldn’t you?”

“Yes.  In fact, I did.”  Josh glanced at her and grinned, probably imagining what Hannah had done when she’d found Sara.  “But your response was a little…”

“Sisters,” he finished for her.  “My sisters’ favorite game was ‘Jump on our Scrawny Brother.’  It’s just a reflex I developed after hearing my name shouted and then having knees jam into my stomach.”

“I can’t imagine you ever being scrawny.”

“Oh, believe it, honey.  I grew four inches when I was thirteen but still weighed like eighty pounds.  My mom thought I was anorexic for an entire summer.”

Sara laughed and Hannah started whining for Josh to hurry.

“All right, all right, I’m done.”  He hung the clipboard on the wall for the next person who had the noon check.  He joined them in the hallway.

“Ooo.  Is that a granola bar?  That looks like real food.  Can we run to the kitchen—”

“No!  We have to go!” Hannah demanded.

“They have been here a while,” Sara said dryly.  “Hannah’s been running around the base looking for people to deal with them since apparently she can’t.”

“I just don’t think—” Hannah started.

“Then gimme some of yours,” Josh said, ignoring Hannah and taking the rest of Sara’s granola bar from her hand and shoving it in his mouth.

“So, hey,” Sara said, “did you say you told them to come over at 6:00am yesterday?  When did you see them?”

Josh’s words were unintelligible around the granola and he didn’t finish chewing before they arrived at the docking bay.  Jim and Alexei had caught up to them by the time they arrived and Tim, Evgeny, and Naoki were already there with the two aliens.  Sara wondered where Sanjay was.

Tim looked to his left as the rest of his crew entered the moon base.  Except for Sanjay.  Half were wearing their navy blue uniforms and the others where in white.  He did not like disorder.  Hadn’t he clearly stated that Mondays through Fridays were for navy blue and white was for the weekends?  What must the aliens think of them?  They both were perfectly uniform wearing blue pants, long-sleeve green shirts, and black boots.  He was pretty sure the pants were pants and not their space suits, but he wasn’t positive.  They were wearing their blue space suit gloves though.  He looked back at his ragtag crew: Xiaodan had a serious case of bed head, Josh’s dress shirt was un-tucked, Sara was licking her fingers, Alexei hadn’t even bothered to put on his jacket.  And where the hell was Sanjay?

“Has anyone seen Sanjay this morning?”

Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads.

“I think he said his alarm has been malfunctioning,” Josh said.  “He might still be asleep.”

“Is having trouble with our alarms an option?” Alexei asked with a yawn.

Tim frowned at him.  He was a bright, intelligent young man, but incredibly lazy.  He supposed the attitude must come from having everything come easily to him.  Not just school, but women due to his looks and material whims because of his family’s wealth.  He thought there weren’t supposed to be any rich Russians what with the collapse of Communism and all.  But, apparently, capitalism was alive and well pretty much everywhere.  He wondered what kind of government the aliens had.  Perhaps they could find out today if they were having any luck with their translation program.

Tim stepped forward from the group, deciding he needed to start acting like a leader now that the initial shock had worn off.  He nodded brusquely to the waiting aliens, and Ben gave him a solemn nod back.  Naya looked like he might start laughing.  Tim definitely liked Ben; he was a professional.

“Welcome, gentlemen,” Tim opened.

“We still haven’t proven they’re gentlemen,” Alexei said cheekily.

“Actually—” Josh started.

“Zharov,” Tim barked, “I’ve had enough of your attitude.  You work for the United States government right now and you will comport yourself like someone who is at work and not on summer vacation.”

Alexei didn’t show his reaction on his face, and he kept his mouth shut, but Tim could see in his eyes that he’d made an enemy.  He cursed inwardly.  He shouldn’t have yelled.  Not that he gave two sniffs of a dog’s butt what the Russian thought of him, but he didn’t want the aliens to see any dissention among the ranks.  This was another reason why he’d heavily lobbied for the first crew to be composed completely of Americans.  Unfortunately while America was paying for Year One, the base had been built using a significant portion of foreign funds and constructed by some strange combination of Russian cosmonaut construction workers.

He left his eyes on Alexei for another few moments and could feel the awkward tension in the room building, but he needed the troublemaker to realize that there was in fact someone in charge and that person was Tim—whether he liked it or not.  Alexei held his gaze for another moment, and then lowered his eyes in submission.  Of course, Tim knew that it was only temporary and that the nuisance would do something later to test him.  Tim returned his attention to the aliens.  They had waited patiently and quietly with completely blank faces.  Either they really weren’t sure what was going on, or they were trying to pretend that they didn’t in order to save their hosts some embarrassment.

“Good morning,” he said.  Then he realized he didn’t know what else to say.  They wouldn’t be able to understand him anyway.  Why couldn’t Josh come forward and say something?  Instead, Ben stepped forward with the iPad and showed it to the group.  Written on the screen it said, “We to explore.  We to learn.”

“Well,” Tim said.  “There’s some good news for you, Jim.  They aren’t here to eradicate humanity.”

“If they were they certainly wouldn’t tell us, Tim.”

Tim harrumphed to hide his chuckle.  He reached for the iPad and saw that they were using a word processing program.  So he typed onto the screen, “Welcome.  We are excited to meet you.”

He handed it back to the aliens and they pulled out their own flat screen computer; theirs was much thinner and the screen looked almost blank to Tim’s eyes, but they seemed to see something on it.  They manipulated their device, glancing back every now and then at Tim’s message.  After a couple of long minutes, they held up the iPad again.  It read: We to agree.

Tim nodded approvingly.  “Well, I must say, they are pretty clever to have worked out a translation program so quickly.  It’s a little rough around the edges, they don’t appear to have figured out how to conjugate verbs, but we might really be able to get somewhere today.  Should we go to the conference room and have a round table?  As long as everyone has done their morning duties.”

“I’m finished,” Sara said.  “I’d love to sit in.  And since I can get actual consent now, can I ask them to submit to some medical tests?”

Tim frowned at her.  “Dr. Martin, I appreciate your scientific curiosity, but perhaps we should hold off on invasive procedures until we at least know their last names.”

Sara frowned petulantly and crossed her arms, but said nothing.

“Yeah,” Josh said, his voice pitched a little low.  “Seems like we should at least know their full names.”  He was eyeing Naya, and the smaller alien seemed to find something on the wrist of his sleeve very interesting.

“Shall we?” Tim asked, indicating the hallway with the shortest walk to the conference room.

Ben strode forward confidently and the rest of the crew followed.  He wondered if they had all really completed their morning assignments or if they were just using the aliens as an excuse to get out of them.

“Josh.”

“Sir?”

“Go find Sanjay.”

“Yes, sir.”

Tim liked Josh.  He’d been raised to respect his elders properly.

Tim started to lead the group out of the room and Josh hung back and patted Naya on the shoulder.  And then gripped him hard.  The alien froze and Josh gave Sara a smile as she paused to look at them.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“I just want to try to get an apology across about yesterday before we do anything else.  Just so things aren’t awkward.”

“Oh, okay.  I’ll try to head off most of the inappropriate interpretations of why the two of you are hanging back alone together.”

She gave him a smirk and he swatted at her to get her moving.  She laughed and followed the others.  Josh let out a small sigh that was half grunt as he watched her ponytail swish back and forth, revealing her long, white neck.  He’d had strange dreams last night about a computer called the Program that created iridescent skinned cyborgs to send out into the universe to study aliens.  And for some reason the Program was interested in studying their mating habits.  He couldn’t remember the convoluted path the dream had taken to get him there, but he definitely had memories of holding a certain beautiful blonde with bright cornflower blue eyes while he stroked a small grey collection of gills on the back of her neck.

Josh shook his head to clear it and glared at Naya.  The alien blinked innocently back at him.

“Oh, don’t even.  What’s with this using a tablet to barely squeak out a few intelligible words?  Or…did the Program malfunction or something and you’re having to do the work yourself…?”

“Yes,” Naya said, obviously latching onto the excuse Josh came up with for him.

Josh crossed his arms over chest.  “If that’s the case, then how come you understood me now to answer that that’s the case?”

Naya tilted his head, as Josh was certain the Program was sorting through his sentence, and then he looked abashed.  He reached out and flicked the tips of the fingers on his left hand with Josh’s right ones.

“Oh, you’re sorry?  What are you two doing?  Pretending you can’t understand us in the hope that we’ll talk in front of you candidly?”

Naya shrugged a shoulder.  “Yes.  Would not you if you could?”

Josh opened his mouth to answer no, and then shut it.  “I’m not sure.  But, since I know otherwise, I have to tell the others.”

“Ain…” Naya let out a small keening sound.

“Why would you even pretend knowing that I already know?”

Naya put his index fingers together and still looked uncomfortable.  “Ben does not know.  The length of the visit in the night of yesterday was by his thinking because of communication difficulties.  Ben will be angry of me.”

“At me.”

“Either way, it is not good.”

“Well, I certainly can’t pretend I don’t know.  It would be…treason.”

Naya processed this.  Then nodded.  “This is true.  Can we delay?”

Josh gave him a look and Naya frowned morosely.

“Perhaps I can distract?  Temporarily?”

“You can try as we walk.  Let’s go.”

They started walking and Josh noticed Naya had the harsh guard over his “veen.”  He assumed Ben must have one too.

“Why does your body turn warm when you look at Sara?”

Josh stumbled and looked at the alien, aghast.  He was smirking at him.

“Perhaps I can ask others about this…phe-nom-en-non.  Hard word.”

Josh grabbed him by the shoulder and made him stop walking.

“What did you just say?  I mean.  What do you mean?”

“You touched my shoulder.  You looked at Sara.  My shoulder grew warm from your heat.”

Josh felt guilty flutters in his stomach and groped for an explanation.  “Our bodies are warm.  Usually between 96 and 98 degrees Fahrenheit.  Or I guess 35 to 36 degrees Celsius would be easier to understand.  So, we’re very warm-blooded—”

Naya held up a hand to stop him and tilted his head in a way that Josh was beginning to recognize as what he did when—listening? reading?—the Program’s translation.

“Use Kelvin.  That measurement is closest to sense.”

“Um…”  Josh dredged up the conversion calculation is head.  “About 309 Kelvin.”

The Program processed that information though Josh wasn’t sure what it was using as a comparison.  Absolute zero?  Naya’s expression changed and Josh thought that if he’d had eyebrows they would have risen.

“That is warm.  But that is inconsequential.  Your hand was normal temperature.  You look to Sara.  The hand became warmer.”

“Th-that’s in your head.  Humans’ hands don’t become warm when they are—attracted to someone.”

“I disagree.  The change was minuscule.  Not something you would notice.”

“And you can?” Josh scoffed.

“Yes.”  He pulled off his glove and pointed to the green diamonds on his skin.  “These are…tissues? that sense temperature.  There are three on the shoulders.”

“Ah.”  Josh chewed on his lower lip and felt his palms get a little clammy.  “Did my temperature really rise?”

“A very little.”

“Damn.”  Josh closed his eyes.

“Is there illness?” Naya said, sounding distressed.  He reached out and grabbed Josh’s arm.  “It is sign of unwellness?  No.  Not wellness?  I thought it meant sexual excitation.  Please tell me you have not taken ill?”

Josh laughed and looked at the panicking alien.  He ruffled his hair, which was hanging loose today, in order to placate him.  He’d also been dying to see what it felt like: the way he imagined spider silk would feel if it weren’t sticky.  So his hair didn’t exactly ruffle so much as…sway.

Naya had a slight frown on his face, but endured the petting.  When Josh stopped, Naya immediately stepped forward and reached up to feel Josh’s hair.

“Ain…” Naya let out a small sigh and alternated between gripping Josh’s hair and then sliding his fingers through it.  “Is all human hair thus?”

“No,” Josh said.  “Some feels even better than mine.”

“I do not recognize that as a possibility.”  He dropped his hand.  “But you laugh.  So, you are well?”

“Yes.  That warming…I am…” he lowered his voice out of embarrassment and the fear that someone—anyone—might overhear his confession.  “…attracted to her.”

“Is this bad?”

“It is for me.  I have a fiancée.  Someone who I love and intend to marry.  Do you guys…marry?”

“Marry?”  The Program thought.  “Marriage.”  The alien frowned at him.  “Again, there are many meanings for one word.  Marry people, marry flavors.  Fiancée is a borrowed word.  I will run the Program to standardize your English to make better sense.”

Josh bit back a smile.  “Thank you.  I guess.  I’m referring to marriage of two people.”

“This is pair bonding?”

“Um, yes, I think so.”

“The marriage to decide the parents of offspring?”

Josh shook his head.  “I don’t understand.”

“You marry to have offspring?”

“Um…yes and no.  Some people have offspring…children.  Some don’t.  Some people have children without getting married.”

“So, marriage is not pair bonding?”

“I don’t understand how you’re defining ‘pair bonding.’  Can you explain it?”

“When a male and female make a choice to make offspring.  That is pair bonding.”

“We’re…our definition is not that one-dimensional.”

Naya gave him a wry smile.  “Of course not.  But I do understand that marriage is a commitment, yes?”

“Yes, exactly.”

“Why is it bad to like Sara then?  Can you not commit to her as well as to the affianced?”

“Affianced?  Oh, my fiancée.  No, I can’t.  Or, I shouldn’t.  I should be monogamous.  I love her and should only be with her.”

Naya’s eyes squinted as the Program churned.  “Monogamous…we have creatures that do this.  But it is not a word jainens use.  The pair bonding is like monogamous.  We do this.  For offspring.  But…do I understand you correctly that inside this commitment of marriage the recreational sex is also restricted?”

“Um.”  Josh hoped he understood the question.  “Yes.”

Naya made a face.  “Why?”

“Be-because.  When you love someone, you should be with them exclusively.”

“You abandon mother and father for marriage?”

“No, no.  Not like that.  Just romantic, and sexual, love.  It should only be with one person.”

“Romance.  Do you require romance for sex?”

“Well, no.”

“Then why does recreational sex have to be restricted?”

“Just because!  That’s the way we are.  Well, most of us.”

Naya sighed.  “Why cannot humans be all the same?”

“That would be boring then, wouldn’t it?”

“Perhaps.  But less confusing.  Josh.  You should pair bond with your affianced for procreation sex.  You should have recreation with Sara.  This is only natural.”

Josh wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the alien’s relationship advice.  It was identical to what Hunter had told him a thousand times before.

“I could, but I don’t want to.  I love Marissa and only want her.”

The alien cocked his head with a half-smile on his face.  “That is not true.”

Josh blushed and couldn’t think of a reply.  For it was true.  Naya put the back of his hand to Josh’s cheek.

“Warmth.  A confession.  Do you also recreate with males?”

Now so much blood rushed to his face he actually felt dizzy.  Did Naya know that he’d had some strange reactions to him?

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“Your species.  Your humans.  Do you recreate intra-gender?”

“Um,” Josh closed his eyes for a brief moment and took a deep breath.  He was speaking in generalities.  “Some do.  Not all.  Not most, actually.  Do you?”

“Ai.  Usually in youth.  Or when females will not understand.”

“When females won’t understand what?”

Naya shrugged.  “Male thoughts.”

“I see,” said Josh, not really understanding at all.  Then he shook himself.  “Wait a minute!  You’re just trying to distract me.  Come on.  We’re telling the others about your little ruse.”

“Aish!  Ji’to!  Ain…wait!”  Naya pulled on his arm to keep him from leaving.  “I will get Ben.  Explain this.  We go for some time.  Come back, say the Program works.  They will think poorly on us if the truth is revealed.”

“As they should you sneaky little alien.”

Naya’s eyes suddenly looked weird.  Kind of pinkish.  And then Josh realized his eyes had filled with tears as the pink tinged liquid spilled down his cheeks.

“I do not want to become enemies,” he sniffed.

Josh considered the contrite alien.  Were these crocodile tears?  He sighed.

“All right.  We’ll get Ben and you two can go off.  But when you come back, both of you had better be willing to admit that you, or the Program at least, can understand everything we say.”

Naya nodded, his tears evaporating quickly in the atmosphere.  Naya put a hand to his cheek, surprised to find them dry.

“Too much oxygen,” he said, with a hint of disgust in his voice.  “Do you really require so much?”

“The ratio might be skewed a little high, but not by much.”

“Perhaps that is why you die young.  Your bodies work too hard.  If you take the oxygen away, you will breathe much more efficiently.”

Josh let out a small laugh and took a deep breath.  “We breathe oxygen.  Not nitrogen.”

Naya shook his head a little, like he had when Josh had called him a cyborg.  He squinted one eye and then looked at him.

“You…breathe…oxygen?”

“And exhale carbon dioxide.”

Naya had a reaction Josh had never seen before.  The iridescence on his face lost its sheen and his skin suddenly became paper white, the outlines of his scales showing in relief.

“It is good I did not take you along with me to the ship.  You would—could not—breathe at all.  You fall to the ground…immediately…no…instantaneously.”

“Ah.  No oxygen in your atmosphere?”

“Zero.  Unless that which is expelled by certain creatures.  However, there are none of those in the ship.”

“Well, that sucks.”  Naya’s face had returned to its proper complexion, but he looked confused.  Josh didn’t bother to explain the expression.  “I was really hoping to get a look at your ship.”

“We will give you a…device.  Like we have.  You will visit.”

Josh smiled.  “Thanks.”  Then he frowned.  “Stop distracting me.  Let’s go.”

Naya whined again but followed Josh the last few steps to the conference room.  He poked his head in and saw Ben carefully studying something Tim had typed out for him.  Honestly, Josh thought he was laying it on a little thick.

“Uh, hey, Tim?”

Tim looked up.  “Josh.  Did you find Sanjay?”

“Ah, not yet.  I need to…speak with Ben for a moment.”

Everyone stared at him blankly.  Then Tim spoke.

“Well, we all do.  It would be nice if you came in here and helped us.  It’s slow going since we can only use words in their literal sense.”

“Uh…right.”  Josh looked at Ben.  He could see the alien tilt his head slightly at the look Josh was giving him.  “I’m sorry.  I just need a couple of seconds.”

“Josh, what do you expect to tell them out there without their translation tools?”

“Um…”

Josh looked at Naya.  Naya sighed and said something to Ben.  The tall alien shot to his feet, his fingertips pressing heavily on the top of the table.  The humans had started in surprise; Jim’s hand had gone to his waist, searching for a gun that thankfully wasn’t there.  Ben started to walk around the table toward the door and Tim stood.

“Meltzer, you had better explain what is going on, right now.”

Josh tried not to flinch.  Tim only used last names when he was displeased with someone.  He tried to disguise the flinch as an embarrassed wince.

“It’s about what happened yesterday.  When I…I just…I need to clear the air.”

“So what _did_ happen?” Alexei asked.  “Did you accidentally propose to her?”

Josh gave him a quick smile.  “I don’t know.  I hope not.  But I’d like to find out.”

“Two minutes, Meltzer,” Tim growled.

Josh nodded.  “Got it.  Two minutes.  In fact, we’ll be right here.  Just outside the door.”

Ben stepped into the hallway and Josh hit the button to the close the door.  As soon as it was shut he laid in on the aliens since he was positive Tim was counting the seconds on his watch.

“What the hell are you two trying to pull?  This won’t instill confidence in us and make us want to trust you.”

Ben turned to Naya and spoke swiftly and harshly.  Naya tried to defend himself, but Josh cut them both off.

“Stop.  You talk in my language.  That’s only fair.”

Ben turned to look at him, his pale ice eyes looking cold and hard.  And kind of mean.  “There is no fair,” he said softly, as if he was trying very hard to make the foreign words fit in his mouth.  His accent wasn’t as muddled as Naya’s, but it definitely sounded “foreign” to Josh’s ears.  “We are alone.  We need the advantage.”

Josh didn’t exactly frown because he understood what Ben was saying.  They were the visitors in an unknown solar system with unknown creatures in an environment that was partially toxic.  They were already at such a serious disadvantage that he could imagine them wanting to be able to understand their hosts while they spoke without reservation.  Perhaps they were listening to hear if anyone was coming up with some good recipes for alien stew or roast Cresenlen.

“I understand,” said Josh, “but you must understand that I can’t pretend that I don’t know.  I discussed it with Naya.  You can return to your ship for a couple hours and then come back out and tell us that the Program is translating for you now.”

Ben made a face and snapped something at Naya.  Naya shrugged.

“What did he say to you?” Josh asked.

Naya glanced at Ben, but answered.

“He is…surprised? alarmed.  That I spoke of the Program to you.”

Ben let out a small aggravated sound in the back of his throat.  Naya reached out to Ben and twined their fingers together in a pattern that Josh didn’t recognize.  Ben didn’t react, but allowed his partner to make the gesture, whatever it might mean.


End file.
